Larva eating horsenettle leaves and stems. Notice the embedded leaf prickles that extend through the leaf that the larvae avoid while chewing. Last shows beetles internals through transparent exoskeleton.Milkweed leaf beetle adult on milkweed
Mating red milkweed beetles on milkweed.Mating milkweed beetles on common milkweed. The beetle vibrates when it is making a warning noise.A red milkweed beetle cutting milkweed vein to reduce/stop latex pressure before feeding beyond the cut.
Hairy rove beetles (Creophilus maxillosus) at four days and larva at seven days under rabbitcarrion.Late stage nymphs and adult fourlined plant bug on thistle (family (Asteraceae)
Single paper wasp foundress establishes her nest, adding cells, renewing repellent on the pedicle. She has already laid eggs in several of the incomplete cells and continually checks the nest and cells.Foundress' nest raided by a rat, beetle or other predator. Nest was previously photographed eleven days earlier when there were five eggs. If the foundress survived, she would start a new nest at a different locationWorker adding additional matrial to expand nestQueen replacing an egg that was either not viable or laid by a workerMasticated caterpillar portion brought to nest and fed to the larvaeWater is brought to the nest for the larvaeWasps fanning the nest with their wings to provide breeze/coolingWasps bring water to place in nest to provide cooling by evaporationPaper wasps disturbed by hits to their nest support.
Yellowjacket wasps can be very aggressive if disturbed. Here the ground was pounded next to their nest—with sound.Yellowjacket wasps using a stone as a landmark to navigate to their nest entrance. When the stone moved, they continued for a time to return orienting with the stone.Yellowjacket response when a leaf blocks their entrance--with sound.Very late in season, nearly every morning is too cold for the yellowjackets to forage. In another several weeks all are dead—except the new queens sheltering somewhere else.Yellow jacket wasp catches green bottle fly to feed its larvae, followed by the final catch in slow motion. rabbitcarrion is four days old.Sphex digger wasp nectaring on Queen Anne's Lace; replayed at one tenth speed.Parasitized white cabbage larvae showing wasp larvae exiting its body, spinning cocoons. Playback at double speed. Adult wasps at normal speed.
Bumblebees can be active in cooler and less favorable weather than most other flying insects. Here it is cool and raining (with audio)Honey bee hive entrance with audio. The last part is at one fourth speed
Adult Phymata sp. attempting its lie in wait technique to ambush a syrphid fly (Orthonevra nitida) and a Halictus beeAdult Phymata sp. catches a Halictus bee.Adult Phymata sp. catches a much larger honey bee.Ambush bugs attempting mating.
Adult cicada and female creating a slit in twig and inserting eggs. The sounds of thousands of cicadas.Emergence! Nearly all at once. Many do not survive, but with mass emergence, many will reach maturity to start the next generation.
Acanthocephala terminalis on milkweedAnts collecting honeydew from Calico scales (Eulecanium cerasorum then played at 30 times speed to show the pumping action of the scale.
Large milkweed bug flying, repeated at one fifteenth speed.Large milkweed bug molting from third to fourth instar. Scenes of the molting followed by the entire molt at fifteen times speed. Last is superposition before to just after molt showing the increased size already.Early instar large milkweed bugs on milkweed late in the season.Late instar and adult large milkweed bugs on milkweed late in the season.A brown marmorated stink bug uses its stylet to pierce a sweet corn stock, inject enzymes and suck in partially digested sap.genus PodisusSpined soldier bug eggs and then the recently hatched first instar bugsHelmeted squash bug late instar nymph.
Butterfly Life Cycle in Video (Pieris rapae, the common cabbage white)
Cabbage white emerging from egg and starting to eat broccoli leaf.
Second instar larvae eating. Speeded up 50 times to illustrate feeding behavior. Nearly transparent body shows internal digestion.
Second instar larvae sheds skin in under 20 minutes.
Cabbage white larvae eating remainder of a broccoli leaf. Six hours speeded up one hundred times.
Segments of the last two hours of the Cabbage white larvae shedding its 4th instar skin. It started a few hours earlier. The integument has already pulled away from its head capsule as this video starts.
Fifth instar white cabbage larvae walking on broccoli stem and on glass, showing it laying down silk it then walks on.
Parasitized white cabbage larvae showing wasp larvae exiting its body, spinning cocoons. Playback at double speed. Adult wasps at normal speed.
White cabbage larvae shedding skin, becoming a chrysalis. Recorded over fifteen hours. Closeups at two times speed. Other clips at ten times speed.
Cabbage white emerging from chrysalis into an adult.
White cabbage butterflies flying. Later clips in slow motion.
Adult Monarch butterflies Flying and sipping nectarMonarch caterpillars eating milkweed leaves1) Fourth-instar Monarch larvae killed and being consumed by a stink (shield) bug. 2) Mature fifth_instar larvae jerks to dislodge a large milkweed bug (a herbivore). 3) Fourth-instar arvae killed by insect parasitoids, non-insect parasites or a pathogen.
The camouflage not only hides it visually but masks it from the chemical sensors on this crab spider's front legs.Wavy-lined emerald moth is an inchworm. It defensively bumps insects that get too close to it.The milkweed tiger moth larvae (23 mm long) consuming common milkweed.
Asteroid larvae on goldenrodCross-striped cabbageworm larvae on the underside of a broccoli leaf. Larvae spinning silk readying to pupate. Lump of tan silk is cocoons of numerous parasitic wasps that parasitized that larvae. Later they emerge as adults.Zebra Longwings necteringSkipper nectaringBlack swallowtail nectaring
Black-horned tree cricket bats away a hover bee (could have been a parasite or predator) with its antenna (replayed in slow speed). Later a cricket sings.
Dragonfly returns to same perch each time it darts out to catch very small flying prey.Dragonflies over a pond (including female inserting eggs below the water surface.
A female Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) catches and consumes a smaller immature preying mantis.Praying mantis nymphs emerging from their ootheca.Preying mantises exhibiting motion camouflagePraying mantis (Tenodera sinensis) catches and eats an adult grasshopper
Crab spider on Queen Ann’s laceCrab spider jumps with safety line, on yellow ironweed. Repeated at variable slow motion to better see silk line. Spider probably Misumessus oblongus.
Two ants and a Castianeira longipalpa investigate a tiger beetle larvae shaft just after the beetle larvae pulled an ant down to consume. Part repeated at one tenth speed.
Milkweed leaf beetle larvae consuming horsenettle. The leaves contain embedded leaf prickles that extend through the leaf protecting it from many herbivores.
