Perpendiscular

Absolute unit of a robber fly found by eldoia87 on Reddit (posted with permission)

Gnamptopelta obsidianator is a large ichneumon wasp whose coloration mimics a spider wasp (Entypus).

It’s a specialized parasitoid of sphinx moth caterpillars, especially those in the subfamily Macroglossinae (such as Eumorpha species). Many of these caterpillars feed on grapevine and related plants, so G. obsidianator seeks out those plants to find hosts.

Cyprus the Microraptor! 🦖🌲

BIG DISCOVERY IN ENTOMOLOGY!

An extraordinary case of elytra loss in Coleoptera (Elateroidea: Lycidae): discovery and placement of the first anelytrous adult male beetle

Vinicius S Ferreira, Felipe Francisco Barbosa, Milada Bocakova, Alexey Solodovnikov

Insects are one of the few groups of animals that developed the ability of active flight. Such mobility allowed the group to successfully explore and thrive in nearly all kinds of ecological niches. At the same time, during the evolutionary history of insects, due to high costs of wing development, flight was lost independently in many groups. In beetles, the reduction or complete loss of hind wings has been reported in multiple lineages, especially in several extreme paedomorphic and larviform females, mainly in Elateroidea, in which not only the hind wings but also the elytra are lost. However, the complete absence of elytra in adult males was hitherto unknown, despite nearly half a million described species in Coleoptera. In this study, we report the discovery of Xenomorphon baranowskii gen. et sp. nov., the first completely anelytrous and wingless adult male beetle, belonging to the family Lycidae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea). Xenomorphon baranowskii is illustrated, described, and provisionally placed in Calopterini, based on our morphology-based phylogenetic analyses. We discuss the possible scenarios that could lead to such a rare event, when a beetle loses its elytra, and its evolutionary consequences.

Read the paper here:

It also definitely tends to look like there's a weird little smiley face in the setae surrounding the moth's head, which is arguably even more striking but for some reason none of the sources I dug up on this species seem to mention that weirdness.

The buff-tip moth (Phalera bucephala) can be found throughout the British Isles, mainland Europe, and Asia, with its range extending into Eastern Siberia.

Sources & More Info

Wildlife Insights: Buff-Tip Moth Identification Guide

ButterflyConservation.org: Buff-Tip Moth

The Wildlife Trusts: Buff-Tip Moth

Wildlife Insight: the Buff-Tip Moth

Moth Identification: P. busephala

Encyclopedia of Life: Global Map of Known Occurrences for P. busephala

Insecta: Phalera bucephala

Lepidoptera and their Ecology: P. busephaloides and P. busephala

Some of them are rainbow and have little leg warmers like: Sabethes cyaneus. They use their legs in one of the only examples of courtship display in mozzies.