Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia). When a predator like a bird gets too close, the butterfly flashes its wings open to reveal the big eye spots, then the predator thinks it's looking at the face of a snake or other predator. #butterfly #insects #nature #wildlife #biology #photo

Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia). When a predator like a bird gets too close, the butterfly flashes its wings open to reveal the big eye spots, then the predator thinks it's looking at the face of a snake or other predator. #butterfly #insects #nature #wildlife #biology #photo

NEED TO KNOW:

40% of #bees and #pollinator species endangered worldwide

25% of bee species no longer showing up on field records across the #planet

76% decrease by mass in flying #insects in Germany ON NATURE RESERVES over a 26 year period

Bee populations decreasing by 5% each year

All caused by humans.
Primarily due to what we choose to eat and how we choose to produce it.

#education
#environment
#biodiversity
#biodiversityloss
#insects
#insectapocylapse
#nature

My art shop has a collection of my original landscape and nature art available.
Good news for buyers in the USA, your art will be sent duty paid, and art is exempt from the tariffs!
https://folksy.com/find/shop/theweeowlart

#FediGiftShop #ScottishArtist #MastoArt #CreativeToots
#Mushrooms #Landscape #Birds #Insects #OriginalArt #Drawing #Painting #Artwork #TraditionalArtist #ArtFromScotland #GiftIdeas #ArtShop #ShopIndy #SupportSmallBusiness

My art shop has a collection of my original landscape and nature art available.
Good news for buyers in the USA, your art will be sent duty paid, and art is exempt from the tariffs!
https://folksy.com/find/shop/theweeowlart

#FediGiftShop #ScottishArtist #MastoArt #CreativeToots
#Mushrooms #Landscape #Birds #Insects #OriginalArt #Drawing #Painting #Artwork #TraditionalArtist #ArtFromScotland #GiftIdeas #ArtShop #ShopIndy #SupportSmallBusiness

NEED TO KNOW:

40% of #bees and #pollinator species endangered worldwide

25% of bee species no longer showing up on field records across the #planet

76% decrease by mass in flying #insects in Germany ON NATURE RESERVES over a 26 year period

Bee populations decreasing by 5% each year

All caused by humans.
Primarily due to what we choose to eat and how we choose to produce it.

#education
#environment
#biodiversity
#biodiversityloss
#insects
#insectapocylapse
#nature

Not all #butterflies start out as caterpillars.

Never let anyone tell you where your limitations lie.

#awalkaday #nature #mindfulness #insects

Life continues for the majority of the planet that did not invest in Bitcoin, including these Tetramorium lucayanum ants.

#Ants #Insects #Tetramorium

Life continues for the majority of the planet that did not invest in Bitcoin, including these Tetramorium lucayanum ants.

#Ants #Insects #Tetramorium

Each season I do four nights of moth lighting in my garden in suburban Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. My summer moth lighting this year started on Saturday. I photograph every moth that settles at my light and today I've been uploading my photos to #iNaturalist.

I've been doing this consistently each autumn since 2015 and every season each year since (at least) 2021. You might think I would have found all the moth species that visit my garden, but no.

So far I've finished uploading Saturday's moth photos and have found six new species to our garden. Here are four of them.

There's the endemic moth *Gymnobathra hamatella*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337290749

There's the "nationally vulnerable" endemic species *Gadira leucophthalma*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337263605

There's the endemic Clematis triangle *Deana hybreasalis*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337285888

Also, less ideal, there's the introduced Case-bearing Clothes Moth *Tinea pellionella*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337285916

#mothodon #moths #Lepidoptera #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #NZ #insects #EcologicalMonitoring

An oak gall I found in a Banj oak tree near home. Once it "hatched", I sent some specimens to ICAR-NBAIR (National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources), who told me that the specimens were Torymus sp. and Cynipoidea.

I didn't even know you could get two kinds of wasps out of a single gall.

#insects #entomology #himalayas

Rainbow Leaf Beetle (Spilopyra sumptuosa), family Chrysomelidae, SE QLD, Australia

photograph by Hongming Kan

via herpsandbirds

#photography
#insects
#beetles

An oak gall I found in a Banj oak tree near home. Once it "hatched", I sent some specimens to ICAR-NBAIR (National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources), who told me that the specimens were Torymus sp. and Cynipoidea.

I didn't even know you could get two kinds of wasps out of a single gall.

#insects #entomology #himalayas

Rainbow Leaf Beetle (Spilopyra sumptuosa), family Chrysomelidae, SE QLD, Australia

photograph by Hongming Kan

via herpsandbirds

#photography
#insects
#beetles

Check out this big gum emperor moth that visited my moth light at home last night, in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ.

I first thought there was a bird flapping in the bushes, before it appeared. This one was pinker than most I've seen, and it happily clambered about on its big fluffy feet.

They're more like Pokémon than real moths.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/336921630

#moths #mothodon #Christchurch #NZ #Ōtautahi #insects #entomology