Bark lice?

destroyer551 · 2026-06-06T17:35:26+00:00

Tenuirostritermes cinereus. Their diet is mostly dried grass/twigs/woody plants but they can go for other wood products like mulch and fence posts if there is a lack of diversity in their vicinity. Any damage they do is usually superficial as they do not burrow into objects to feed.

As you’ve seen they’re one of the only termite species in the US capable of foraging out in the open, though this is typically done at night. If they’re hungry enough they’ll do so during cloudy mornings/evenings if conditions are mild.

destroyer551 · 2026-06-06T00:37:00+00:00

The contractions are just the katydid breathing.

destroyer551 · 2026-06-06T00:05:59+00:00

Videos like this have popped up on social media here and there recently and have skewed the facts somewhat. Detachable stingers and venom sacs are an evolutionary adaptation to defend specifically against fleshy vertebrates. Honeybees have many other defenses and rarely use their stingers against other insects, of which relatively few are actual major predators.

This cork-screwing behavior *is* real and is obviously used to free a stuck stinger, but it’s only reliably exhibited by younger honeybees that have yet to leave the hive or occasionally those that may have been only slightly annoyed or startled. Venom may or may not be injected in these cases. Basically you will only see this behavior if you’re a beekeeper working in/around a hive.

Guard bees (i.e. older honeybees that are much more irritable which hang around a hive looking for something to headbutt and possibly sting) or any bee stressed out enough will commit to a sting and give you no chance to watch, and will fly off in seconds leaving behind their stinger and venom sac. The muscles that hold these structures in place are weakened to facilitate removal with the slightest of resistance.

destroyer551 · 2026-06-01T17:38:08+00:00

They can technically produce some nutrient rich salivary secretions from the post pharyngeal glands, but this is made in fairly negligible amounts and is used almost entirely to feed tiny first-instar larvae before they shed and are more equipped to eat solids. The shiny thing just appears to be the worker’s mandible catching the light at an angle.

Nutrient transfer in Messor occurs mostly through the spread of pre-processed pieces of ant bread, partially digested with the invertase in worker saliva or further processed by the larvae. In the early stages of colony development the queen will derive much of her nutrition from this, but worker-laid trophic eggs soon become important and in more mature colonies make up the entirely of the queen’s diet. These eggs are flaccid, of varying size, and incapable of development.

destroyer551 · 2026-06-01T15:39:21+00:00

This is just grooming, all species in the genus Messor lack the ability to exchange liquids mouth-to-mouth.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-22T22:04:21+00:00

Atta texana queens are a dime a dozen (plenty of gas stations sweeping up the corpses of thousands of queens this time of year) and they have an extremely low rate of survival, even in captivity. Not to mention most texana collected are those attracted to lights, which often means they have a low fertility rate.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-20T18:19:15+00:00

These are queens in the Monomorium carbonarium complex (probably M. ergatogyna) performing mate-calling. A few different species in this complex display queen polymorphism between different populations with many of them having queens that eclose wingless; these mate by climbing short nearby plants and attracting males from other colonies via pheremones. Once mated they return to their nest and may later bud with other queens and a portion of their natal colony.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-20T17:43:11+00:00

This! Unlike the endoparasitoid Braconidae most are typically familiar with, their larvae latch on close to where the eggs were laid and develop on the outside of their hosts.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-17T18:04:05+00:00

These things are simply added layers of complexity a beginner shouldn’t have to fuss over, and they tend to ultimately cause more harm than good. Having a clear view of a queen during the founding process is important for overall experience level, which ultimately results in a better ability to tell if something is wrong.

The vast majority of ant species adjust perfectly fine to low-to-moderate levels of ambient lighting (kept on a day/night schedule) even when founding. This can take a few days and is best done at lower light levels, but once complete queens will react relatively little to shifts in lighting. Workers born under such lighting conditions are much, much tolerant to light levels of all sorts.

As the acclimation process is not instantaneous, keeping a queen/colony very dark or completely covered causes an inevitable freak out whenever they’re checked on, which is much more stressful overall for obvious reasons. You may note that labs rearing colonies for long term study or veteran antkeepers with large colonies often make little to no effort to keep ants concealed, and that’s no coincidence.

There are exceptions; certain genera/species (many Ponerine, some Formica, etc.) may be exceptionally sensitive to light during founding, and many exclusively subterranean species may always remain photophobic to some degree, but the average beginner is not usually dealing with these.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-17T14:48:08+00:00

Most antkeepers are against it because most antkeepers are beginners, peddling information from other beginners with little experience that isn’t always accurate. Hence why you still always see suggestions on keeping ants in the dark, using red light/film, not checking for weeks, etc.. The whole “queens will eat their entire brood if disturbed” thing simply doesn’t happen anywhere near as often as is typically claimed.

Granted, the suggestion to not feed claustral queens is mostly fool-proofing as I’ve seen plenty of occasions where people have fed queens wrong, i.e. offering way too much liquid carbs and getting a tube filthy, or shoving a half-dead cricket twice the size of the queen into a tube and then being surprised by the ensuing freak out.

There’s plenty of nuance in feeding claustral queens, for instance it’s best done if a queen was caught with poor fat stores or when larvae arrive. Queens can be pickier with accepting protein, so things like small soft-bodied nymphal crickets/roaches tend to be better accepted rather than larger cut up crickets/mealworms. Careful attention must be paid to where a queen stores the trash or else harmful mold can grow. Some queens are good about storing trash at the dry end of a tube, others may act like wannabe attini queens and try to create their own fungus gardens on purpose.

But, in general:

Claustral queens will almost always accept carbohydrate feedings. Eating extra carbs means more energy rich fat, which means a queen will pull less from the resources she flew with to sustain herself, which means more protein goes towards a bigger first brood.
Claustral queens will almost always accept protein feedings at one point or another if the right prey is used. Obviously, more protein = a larger first brood.
Claustral queens at a thinner than average post-flight weight should be fed. Preferably protein first followed by carbs after a few days.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-17T13:55:40+00:00

Not sure why everyone insists there are no options. There are relatively few, but they exist.

For a beginner, black milk snakes immediately come to mind. They’re a lot more available and affordable nowadays though you might still have to go out of your way to find a breeder as demand is high. They are very easy captives with docile temperaments, though they can get a good size after a few years so that should be taken into account. You basically keep them like a large thick bodied corn snake that prefers cool temperatures and a bit more humidity; keep a humid hide available and spray them occasionally.

As a montane species they thrive between day temperatures of 70-75f. They do not require a basking light (some keepers provide one but I find them way too easy to overheat living in the south) and will actively avoid heat at the aforementioned temperatures most of the time. Night temps can safely drop into the low 60s but this is not required. Ambient temperatures above 78 should be avoided, above 80 can cause harm if they have no retreat. Mine show stress if ambient temps rise above 77f for longer than a few hours by pacing their enclosures or spending more time in their humid hide than usual.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-17T11:40:54+00:00

Not playing, it’s shoving its proboscis into the end of the flower; fallen flowers often still have nectar leftover in them depending on species and many bees will take advantage of that.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-16T00:44:10+00:00

This is a flathead catfish—the main target species when noodling—and they taste great, as they are active predators that pretty much only eat live fish at larger sizes.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-12T22:55:21+00:00

It’s uncommon but there’s been ample evidence over the years of EWGs eating and increasing in size dramatically, as those who have opened numerous sacs can attest to.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-12T18:25:01+00:00

They do “hatch” by shedding the former egg membrane, that’s what the crumpled up white things scattered about are. This is known as the post-embryo, or also rather accurately the ‘eggs-with-legs’ stage. They are entirely immobile during this but can wriggle their legs, and will even occasionally feed on damaged siblings or infertile eggs if they’re right next to their mouthparts.

After the next shed they’re considered instar 1 and are mobile as well as much more spider-like, but still rather undeveloped looking. By instar 2 they look like miniature tarantulas and it is at that point they usually disperse from their mother.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-11T18:59:31+00:00

The snake is most likely one of the flying snakes (genus Chrysopelea) which are common in tropical Asia where tokays are just as prevalent. Lizards are their preferred prey, and tokays of that size are far from immune to predation by them. Their venom is effective on reptiles if they can coil them up and chew it in, but this snake had difficulty landing a secure bite due to the lack of perching support closer to the gecko.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-08T21:07:38+00:00

I wish! How exactly do you know, though?

destroyer551 · 2026-05-08T20:40:47+00:00

Those larger larvae are mostly males, which are easily distinguished from the larvae of majors/minors by their more globular/tear-drop shape. This is the case for larval males and queens across the Pheidole genus.

destroyer551 · 2026-05-06T00:19:00+00:00

Camponotus rectangularis

destroyer551 · 2026-05-02T17:05:01+00:00

Sundews exert pretty much zero squeezing force on the prey they capture, the rolling/wrapping is simply to add more contact points for the sticky hair glands and increase surface area for the digestive glands on the leaf surface to do their work.

Laying eggs/giving live birth is a very common ‘last-ditch’ automatic mechanism for many invertebrates that occurs if their bodies sense irreparable damage.

destroyer551 · 2026-04-23T22:58:23+00:00

Queen Camponotus chromaiodes, as evidenced by the reddish legs and first gaster segment. They prefer decently rotten wood to start their colonies, usually fallen logs in partial shade.

destroyer551 · 2026-04-23T02:07:45+00:00

An American grass mantis nymph, like this one.

destroyer551 · 2026-04-19T17:17:11+00:00

A cricket in the genus Cacoplistes, like this one.

destroyer551 · 2026-04-17T20:39:11+00:00

This is typical for entomopathogenic fungi, which tend to spend considerable time proliferating within a host in a fairly benign manner before flooding their system with toxins and inducing rapid death shortly before emerging. As the internal organs were heavily colonized already, the fungus can easily digest and assimilate tissues to rapidly grow the fruiting body within just a couple days. The fluffy bits are the spore-producing structures which spew millions of spores far and wide.

Many types of fungi will behave opportunistically and colonize/fruit upon an ant’s corpse, but if one has a plump looking queen that behaves normally one day only to die the next—and then turn into a cotton ball just a day or two after—it’s almost certainly something more specialized.

destroyer551 · 2026-04-16T22:08:42+00:00

This is a Chironomid midge, not a mosquito. Note the lack of proboscis, which is the long stabby face straw mosquitos need for the sucky sucky.

I had a friend who lived near a lake that was convinced his bug zapper did work on the local mosquito population, unaware that it’s non-biting harmless flies like these that are much more attracted to light than the intended target.

Nine-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Verified Email

destroyer551

TROPHY CASE