Even in scientific circles, it’s a common misconception that a spider feeds by “drinking” through its two fangs, like a vampire. In reality, the fangs can only inject venom and digestive enzymes into prey, not suck anything back in. The actual mouth is a small, jawless opening beneath the fang-bearing chelicerae.
It’s like a walrus with venomous tusks!
Somehow, I typo’d “Ambush Bug” as “Ambush Book” in my last post, and didn’t notice until the next day. I don’t know what an “Ambush book” is. Possibly some subspecies of the Mimic from Dungeons and Dragons. Anyway, here are some Ambush Bugs not being eaten by spiders:
These predatory true bugs can be found everywhere in the world, but you’ve probably never noticed them - even the largest could fit neatly on your pinky fingernail, and they spend most of their time crouched amidst similarly colored flower petals, eating any other insect that gets close enough.
I like how the wacky DC superhero of the same name has reasonably appropriate antennae and face markings.
Look at this fucking asshole caterpillar
I featured these in this article but the animations are a far better explanation. They’re among several Hawaiian caterpillars which evolved to fill a predatory niche, unlike anywhere else in the world!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/opoterser/
Robber flies are the condors of the insect world. Or maybe the condors duct-taped to velociraptors. Related to ordinary houseflies and mosquitoes, more than 7,000 species of these creatures can be found around the world, on every single continent in every environment where you can find their preferred prey, which is everything from the tiniest gnats to this unfortunate dragonfly twice its size.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fakhir/1449912954/
Here, we see a robber sucking the guts from the crumpled body of a spider who apparently ordered lunch from an ironic genie.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/texaseagle/5884787210/
This robber, on the other hand, is sucking the innards from a hornet, whose whole nest of flying toxic daggers couldn’t save it from one hairy little fly. The long, thick hairs of a robber fly, including its bristly “mustache,” are adapted to protect the insect from the jaws and stingers of most prey; they just can’t get close enough to its body surface to fight back.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imarsman/18990911/
You may have seen robbers on the prowl and never even noticed, as many of them resemble other bees, wasps or flies just to get the drop on their victims.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogersmith/2664264689/
Many robbers are also known as “hangingflies,” because they will hang from one foot while feeding. This gives the predator five limbs to keep the victim in its clutches and allows it to escape other attackers by just letting go and taking wing.
This is the most stunning - and ADORABLE - footage I have ever seen of these bizarre little predators!
As I wrote about in my two-part article on the world’s coolest beetles, these larvae plug their burrows with their own thickly armored, flattened faces, watching for prey with their upturned eyes and sensitive trigger hairs. Tell me they aren’t just precious at the beginning of the footage, looking so shy and timid in their little tunnels. Then again, I don’t think they ever stop being precious. I’m glad that one finds his home again, I was getting worried!
Nature always comes up with the best video game enemies.
Here’s a cool video of another giant, earthworm-eating land leech. I want one SO BAD. It even has tiny, beady little eyes! Some leeches actually have dozens of eyes, but too small to be seen :)
(robber fly photographed by Thomas Shahan)
I know the human race varies wildly in taste (that rhymed!) but I always have and always will think something is completely wrong with anyone who thinks insects are creepy, ugly or disgusting in appearance. When I think about just how many people display this arbitrary revulsion I’d swear I’m living in some kind of mixed-up Bizarro world. There’s no logical reason why the highly ordered shapes and textures of insects shouldn’t set off the same positive responses as daffodils, diamonds, rainbows or goldfish - if there is any scientific, mathematical measure of beauty, insects by all accounts should qualify. They exhibit nothing but elegance from antennae to tarsi, and I fully believe that the predominant disapproval of their form is just another contagious mental quirk accidentally enabled by modern society.
We are simply not meant to think that bugs are yucky.
I encourage reblogging if you agree, or blog your own appreciation for arthropoda with an image you find especially beautiful!
Saga ephippigera is a *carnivorous* desert Katydid from Israel, introduced to me by my friend Gil Wizen when I interviewed him on his frog-eating beetle research.
One of several photographs sent to me by the very nice Gil Wizen, from his personal research on the bizarre frog-hunting beetles of Israel. He and his colleagues were the first to finally deduce and study the extent of this very unusual diet. Click links for my article featuring even creepier shots and some of Wizen’s fascinating anecdotes!
