Eden's Entomology

My goal of finding a massive Arizona insect has been achieved :)

To start, we have this HUGE California Barrel Cactus! Cacti are notoriously slow growing, a plant like this could easily be decades old.

Next we have a Buckhorn Cholla! These are so alien to see comparable to the plants native to Ohio!

This adorable Common Meadow Katydid decided to be a wonderful subject for my photography today. He was posted up on my bird feeder hanger and held very still to get his picture taken!

These wonderful animals are known as Lace Bugs! I will be trying to get another photograph of these beautiful hemipterans with my "microscope" camera soon to better capture the details on their wings. They have gorgeous intricate designs reminiscent of stained glass on them, up close they are stunning. I am just so happy to have found a couple!

I also found this spider while out and about! I am not too sure what species this arachnid might be.

Check out all these hover flies! Though they may look like bees at a first glance, this insect is a member of order diptera and is a type of fly.

All three of these insects are of the Eastern Calligrapher species. The pattern on the abdomen of this particular species is so beautiful and intricate; it is just stunning how similar it remains on completely different individuals.

Meet the Spiny Asassin Bug! This freaky hemipteran is a member of family reduviidae, the assassin bugs. These insects have piercing/sucking mouthparts, of which is a tube-like structure called a rostrum. This structure is used to inject venom into the insect's prey, which begins to digest the prey's internal organs, allowing the assassin bug to to suck everything up.

I love insects and other arthropods and as a result try to photograph almost every one I encounter. I use these photographs to ID the subject later, share online (or IRL) and educate folks on the subject, or simply to have a nice photo of an animal that I am passionate about. I love studying different orders and families of many animals and especially love learning about them as I find them.

My phone's storage space does not enjoy these activities as much as I do, so I got a USB and put all my wildlife pictures in it. I started organizing them into folders as well, organized by taxonomic rank!

Basically, there is a folder labeled "Arthropoda." -> In that folder is another labeled "Insecta." The "Insecta" folder contains several folders such as -> "odonata," "ephemeroptera," and other insect orders. Under these folders, I put pics of species belonging to the order labeled. Some I have added family folders, others I haven't.