#dead bugs

@dweebpheles submitted: Been having lots bug encounters this summer. Glad to see your submissions are back open and I hope you're doing well 💙💙 the first two moths were found dead at my local moth Hotspot gas station, Polyphemus and Regal! Some other guys I encountered recently, and lastly, the luna moth I unfortunately hit with my car on the way home from work; she flew out in front of me so I pulled over and got it out of my grill (I was crying in front of a bunch of river rafters cause the pull off I was at is literally a river access point and I was in fact getting stared at). She looked okay except for the tear in her wing, until I looked at her body--her eggs were coming out, too. I held her in my lap all the way home, and I humanely euthanized her when I got there because I didn't want her to suffer, so now I'm just gonna frame her and make sure she's forever honored 😭💙

A small collection of insects I've come across this year! CW (TW...?) for dead insects (the dragonfly nymph covered in ice for the first 2)

It went very well thank you!! Wishing you a happy new year!! :)

[PHOTOS TAKEN: MARCH 10TH, 2025 | Image IDs: Eleven photos of a pair of old organ pipe mud dauber nests that have been removed from their original surfaces, the first one shows the backs of both, each with a multitude of chambers; one on the right with sixteen or seventeen chambers and the other on the left with thirteen chambers. The pipe-like structures of each are individually shown from the front and the back in two pairs of photos, another three photos following each pair that show pieces of spiders in most, with a few containing spun silk from the former larval wasp residents making structures to pupate in /End IDs.]

A pair of old organ pipe mud dauber (Trypoxylon politum) nests I found on a metal barrel! Didn't initially intend to take them off, they just popped off of the surface with a slight touch, but it's a good opportunity to show you guys what these things look like from the other side!

This species is one of the many that are specialized to hunt spiders, provisioning their larvae with paralyzed spiders. You can see bits of leftover spiders in each chamber, which makes me wonder how much of it was eaten, assuming the nest was truly left behind already. What I am sure of, however, is; Despite the devastating precision and skill of these hymenopteran hunters when it comes to spiders, they are, like most parasitoid wasps, extremely difficult to provoke, so there's no need to be concerned about a sting around them!