A really special creature visited me this morning, I have always found the presence of these guys to be extremely lucky and auspicious... I would love it if you guys would share and post pictures of your small creature encounters, as I have always had a keen interest in insects and small creatures.




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its not psychedelically related but it was very cool.

once when I was climbing in Sardinia we had just got off a wall that took us about 6 hours up and down, we got back to the car and decided to have a rest before driving off as we were knackered. My friend was sat in the driving seat and I was in the passenger seat, he had his head down and was reading the guide book to choose tomorrows climb, I turned to look at him as one of these....



flew through the open door. It stopped and hovered infront of his head for about 5 mins as I sat there in silence to see how long it would stick around. After 5 mins he looked up from the book and saw the hummingbird moth about an inch from his nose, he nearly jumped out of the sun roof.

Later that evening we were driving, looking for a dossing spot, and one of these...



landed on the windscreen as we were doing about 50mph, this little sucker held on for about 10 mins before we pulled over to flick him off.

Then the next day I was climbing a route and got to the top, as I was securing myself before lowering off I noticed loads of little lobstery looking bugs, they would scurry about and then when you got near them they would jump at you, or off the rock. they are quite small but when you zoom in they look like this...



It was a cool trip, good climbing and good bugs.

I'm a big fan of the insects, I have a postgrad degree in entomology and am about to embark on a PhD with a heavy insect slant (termites, soils and ecosystem services in Ethiopia), but I've always been into insects and wildlife. I encountered many weird and wonderful things out in Vietnam...these are a few of my faves. The last one is a Nephila spider, so not insectoid but still thought it was pretty cool.

3rdI

Wow, thank you for sharing your incredible insect encounters... Sounds like you had an amazing adventure and came across some special creatures.


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Bancopuma

It must be really fascinating studying these unique and diverse creatures. I have always been drawn to insects and bugs even when I was a little girl. I remember there were boys in my class that would try and secretly place insects on me in order to scare me but instead of screaming and reacting with fear, I would immediately be interested in the insect and I would begin to study it. It was really priceless to see the expressions on their faces when I reacted with curiosity rather than being scared.

Insects have a way of capturing your imagination and bringing you into their world. I avidly collect insects and their exoskeletons as they have evolved embodying perfection within their natural design, its astonishing and breathtaking. Thank you for sharing some of your photographs of your journey to Vietnam, they are really beautiful and absolutely inspiring.


Much Peace and Respect

A baby mantis visiting my peyote's...





Much Peace and Compassion

That, is awesome

I came across this beauty a few months ago, already posted the pic on another thread, but I think it fits perfectly on this one too:

Hey Elpo, that is a beaut, looks like it could be an eastern black swallowtail caterpillar, Papilio polyxenes. Swallowtails are very rare in my part of the world.

Aegle - love that little mantid with your peyote! I really dig those guys. On the perception of insects front, it is amazing just how many people are scared of them. I worked in a pub a few years ago and these guys in the kitchen put a lobster (not insects, but arthropods) on my shoulder (claws were tied) in an attempt to make me jump, but they were disappointed when I didn't flinch. The guys despised the lobsters which I couldn't really understand, they could be 30+ years old and are going to die by being boiled alive, isn't that enough?? I don't think they deserve hate as well. People seem to vary a lot in how they perceive other life forms or in their respect for other life.

I remember in Peru, the night before I drank ayahuasca in Manu I was with a good friend and there was a thunderstorm, but just before we encountered all these fireflies...I'm a big fan of these anyway, but this time they were all flashing in synchrony as one...was a very cool thing to witness. The great thing about insects is their incredible diversity of form, and their abundance. So a bored insect fan is simply a very lazy insect fan.

love ..

Bancopuma

Mantises in particular seem to be special creatures, usually when I encounter them I get a strong intuitive feeling to smoke Changa. Indeed it is profoundly sad and disturbing when people are unable to perceive the preciousness of all sentient beings, no matter how small they may be. Everything is connected intrinsically and through lack of care or concern for other forms of life ultimately it represents a disconnection with oneself.

It must of been awe inspiring to witness the fireflies synchronizing the flashing of their little lights... Synchronicity within nature always gives me shivers and goosebumps due to its intense complexity. While sailing on the ocean the phosphorescence from the bioluminescent plankton that would appear through the dark water would glisten and shimmer in complete unison, almost like they were all apart of one another.

The variety and diversity of insects is almost unbelievable and otherworldly, I think perhaps that's why I am so fascinated with them.


Much Peace and Understanding

Much Peace and Happiness

Thanks a lot for the info. I looked it up and it did show up between the results. Some of them didn't seem to have the orange spots and other did.

My relationship with insects is not that intricate, but I do have this fascination for them. I will flinch if I see a spider in an unexpected place, but after a second I tend to look at it real close and study it's movements, wondering how it perceives me

Here is another one of my small creature encounters, saved this little guy off a road.


Much Peace and Kindness

I touched a hairy spider last week. That was something for me. Haha.
They are actually soft and warm. It is quite pleasant to the touch.

My avatar is some kind of Hornet. Species unknown. But i love those intense eyes.

Insects are awesome x 1000-fold !

To think that they where much bigger at one point in the past. I swear someday they will kill us all. >

Holy cow! That's a MOTH?!?
How big do those things get, and what is their habitat/country /region of origin?
Very cool!

One day when I was out camping in a relatively remote part of northern Wisconsin, I decided to go out and identify some mushrooms. I canoed across the lake from where I was camped to a forested area with an open understory and humic soil where I always find interesting fungi.

I sat on the shore of the lake identifying stuff, when the first little guy lowered itself from a tree onto my arm.

Then, as I was leaving, I saw a dark fishing spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus) walk across the water and go under my canoe. I didn't get a picture then, but I got some later that week.

When I got back to camp, I saw a beautiful Western fox snake (Pantherophis vulpina). He (or she) got lucky, cause I was really close to trying to catch and eat it, no joke. It was almost 4ft long, which is a big snake, but still a small creature.

It had rained recently, so there were tons of baby toads around. And later I found another snake. This was a northern redbelly snake (Storeria occipitomaculata). These guys don't get very big, but they are cool looking.

yes its a moth, a crazy moth. I think they bob about in a few places, the one in my story was in Corsica but I have seen one in southern England.

they have a wingspan of 5-6cm and they are very cool

There is also another genus of closely related moths that look very similar to that genus of moths called Hemaris. They are found throughout the northern hemisphere and there are even a few species in South America.

These hummingbird moths are actually pretty common in my area, especially in remnant and restored prairies. I even see them in my backyard (which is in a more urban residential setting) from time to time.

Wow, this thread has made my day... Thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures and stories with me. Cant stop smiling.


Much Peace and Happiness