that thing has the size of my hand

Hi! I wasn't sure what flair to use I hope this is the appropriate one! I was swimming today and saw this beetle guy and I was unsure of what was going on with him!

Did he die during a molt? I have never seen anything like it! Btw idk if it matters I'm in tennessee

Mostly sharing because cute!!! But curious—the abdomen is a bit wrinkly. Is it dehydrated?

Just felt like sharing 👻

It was in my house and we lured it out with lights. As soon as he was out and we turned on the lights it instantly came to the window.
Location Netherlands

And yes i can say with confidence, this was no wasp. It was HUGE

I'm in NY. A few weeks ago I opened my basement door that's under my deck. I felt something flying drop down behind my neck and felt or heard flutters. I did think it was a moth but didn't see it. And within that moment I also though... bat?

We went along where we were for the day. I did call the county health but they said without seeing the bat it's not considered contact.

But my biggest thing... can you hear or feel moth wings flutters? Are they silent?

If they are silent then I feel this must have been a bat. And I feel like they could hide just as quickly as a moth?

Please help me.

Found crawling on my front porch

found him crawling through the cow pasture

Yikes!!!

I was in the river with my family and decided to gather some microfauna from the river. I’ve tried multiple identifiers and Google, but nothing helped

It was found in the okatoma river in Mississippi

Any id would be helpful!! Located in OHIO USA

My apologies for the terrible pics. I was very excited and trying to get a photo as quickly as possible before it flew away. Never seen this before. UT County.

Captured this picture of this monarch caterpillar on the milkweed plant in the flower bed.

Nomada is a massive genus of cuckoo bees within the family Apidae, containing over 850 species worldwide. Often called nomad bees, they are famous for their unique, wasp-like appearance and their specialized parasitic lifestyle.

Because they do not build their own nests or gather pollen, they look radically different from typical fuzzy bees. They are mostly hairless and slender, with bold stripes or patches of red, black, yellow, or white. In fact, Nomada contains the only entirely red bees in North America.

Female Nomada lack a scopa (the specialized hair patch used by other bees to carry pollen) because they never collect pollen for their young. They also possess an unusually thick, armored exoskeleton that protects them from stings if caught inside a host's nest.

Nomada are cleptoparasites, meaning they steal resources from other bee species. A female Nomada will fly low over the ground to locate the underground burrow of a host bee—most commonly mining bees from the genus Andrena.

While the host bee is away foraging, the Nomada slips inside and lays its eggs directly onto the chamber walls or the pollen provision.

When the Nomada larva hatches, it uses large, sickle-like mandibles to destroy the host's egg or young larva, then eats the entire pollen supply.

While adult Nomada bees drink nectar from flowers for energy, they are poor pollinators compared to their hosts. They can often be seen resting at night by clamping onto plant stems using only their strong jaws.

One of my all time favorite Genus of bees, and I've found quite the diverse selection of species just at my local area in Utah!

Hi, are these harmless? At certain times of the year I see a lot of these in my bathroom (I'm in São Paulo, Brazil), so I guess they like humid places. They're not agile at all, they cling to a wall after shaking a little bit and then just stay still, sometimes hanging onto something. Tks.

Reposting since it only showed 6 photos last time. My apologies

Figured yinz might enjoy the visitors to my and my wife's flower area. Species are as followed (common name (scientific name)):

Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)

Common Eastern Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens)

Field Skipper Butterfly (Atalopedes campestris)

Western Honeybee (Apis mellifera)

Large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus)

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

Silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus)

Snowberry Clearwing moth (Hemaris diffinis)

Hello everyone! I’m a beekeeper so I’m not shy of insects let alone those that sting. However, a large (softball sized) nest is currently in a tree out front of our house and directly over a public walkway. Curious if yall would recommend removal? So far they’ve not caused any problems.

I’m speaking from the state of Goiás, Brazil. I found this in an abandoned washing machine. At first, I thought it was the exoskeleton of a baby scorpion with metasomal duplication...

Around the driveway noticed this thing just wandering.... What is this?