It's Critter Time!

A WARNING TO FEARS OF LITTLE GUYS, ESPECIALLY SPIDERS, THIS THREAD WILL BE FULL OF THEM!!!

So! I knew inevitably I had to make a thread like this cause it made so much sense, for very obvious reasons. XXD

Figured this one could be used for folks to share any photos of bugs and other little critters that would fit within the entomologist fold (So that includes the fellas on the archnid side, or sea slugs swimming about!), as you can expect!

I figured this would also be a good place for folks to potentially share their knowledge as well, help with identifying critters you find, explaining a bit of their behaviours, biology, and any other funky little aspects you might know about them or find rather charming. If it gets far enough, maybe this thread will be a general discussion thread on bugs as a whole! We'll have to see. ::3

But if you aren't as bugversed or knowledgeable on little guy matters! Don't worry, this place will be good for general appreciation of little guys and comments of "Heh heh...They're cute. ::>". (I'm not exactly the most bug smart myself, if it helps with anything. ::B)

Also let's try and keep the "kill it with fire" to a minimum, unless we're talking about certain critters that are considered a genuine problem, even amongst most entomologists or so. ..w..

(Also will be debating if this thread should have the etiquette to have certain bugs to be spoilered that are known to cause stronger fears in some folks (I.e. Spiders.), or because of the subject of the thread in general, if it should be fine to just post and let the warning do the work.)


ANYWAY! To start this thread off, found this little spider yesterday while taking some rubbish out! Was sitting on top of my bin just chilling in the sun.





I am not entirely sure what this specific species of spider they are, but based on my phone's labelling within the photos, it was possibly some kind of crab spider? Though I am not sure if it is the case cause my phone has a bit of an inconsistency with its labelling. --w--

The arms do seem to give a very crab like behaviour with how they stand out so wide, especially with how it was moving. It's the first time I have seen them, so their behaviour and the looks of them were especially fascinating to me. The sandy covering over much of the main body, and how each leg is a nice dark brown. The legs really go so far apart, much more than most other spiders I've come across in my buggy life!

If anyone can identify them, that'd be spectacular! I also hope this thread becomes an entertaining experience for a lot of folks here. ^^w^^

Yesyesyesyes bugs are wonderful and lovable. That's part of the reason we went with a Ribombee as our system mascot (that and, y'know, ribbons.) Anyways, have some friends I made at work! - Finn (fae/she)


snale


spidre

Here’s some critters I’ve come across! I love spiders :3

Ribbon wrote: Tue Jul 15, 2025 1:04 pm

Oh my goodness yesssss!! Oh the snail and spider are both so lovely. ^^w^^

The shape of snail's shell here especially looks very similar to some of the tiny crabs ya find on the beach, very long sea shell-like! And the way the way that spider is looking up and the insanely fuzzy looking legs, they're absolutely lovely. ^^w^^

xwildwhirlx wrote: Tue Jul 15, 2025 6:49 pm

So glad to see already so much spider stuff popping up here! Some very good pictures here especially, the last one looks so curious with the way it is staring up, like they are trying to figure out how to get out of the conundrum they're in (Even though most spiders don't really do best vision wise normally, still funny to imagine. ::B). XXD

Many spiders have very good vision! It's not really comparable to mammalian vision as its purpose is extremely different, but jumping spiders are often capable of the higher functions of vision as we know them, like color recognition (hence the bright coloration of peacock spiders!).

In particular, the Portia spider of Africa, southeast Asia and Northern Australia has nearly human-like visual acuity, which it needs to hunt other spiders. The cost of such excellent vision is that it takes their tiny brains a long time to process so much information, leaving them sitting ducks for bigger predators.

Oh what cute little critters!! So many cute buggies in this thread

As an aside, Spidey, do you use iNaturalist? It's a website/app dedicated to logging pictures of animals/plants you see for identification and science purposes. You might find it interesting if you want to get IDs on bugs you see/get better at IDing bugs!

Fiendly wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 8:46 pm Many spiders have very good vision! It's not really comparable to mammalian vision as its purpose is extremely different, but jumping spiders are often capable of the higher functions of vision as we know them, like color recognition (hence the bright coloration of peacock spiders!).

In particular, the Portia spider of Africa, southeast Asia and Northern Australia has nearly human-like visual acuity, which it needs to hunt other spiders. The cost of such excellent vision is that it takes their tiny brains a long time to process so much information, leaving them sitting ducks for bigger predators.

Hidden text.

Oh wow, yeah you're right!!! I had gotten it completely mixed up with how the spider's vision tends to be, and how they function quite surprisingly well. I think you may have seen it, but the video of the research that was done by sticking a spider to a swab and having them walk on a trackball, really demonstrates that they can be pretty fast when they can be! Their eyes are certainly a bit big for their head...But then they would lose the charming aspect with their dummy little selves. XXD

Love the spider choice for the example! The head shape especially was always interesting just cause how "thin" it is compared to most other spiders, it's like 65% eye up there. ::B

Also here's the aforementioned video that I was referring to for anyone who is curious about the whole research behind a spider's vision!

vurrsys wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 10:04 pm Oh what cute little critters!! So many cute buggies in this thread

As an aside, Spidey, do you use iNaturalist? It's a website/app dedicated to logging pictures of animals/plants you see for identification and science purposes. You might find it interesting if you want to get IDs on bugs you see/get better at IDing bugs!

I actually have and boy have I been meaning to actually make an account on there, cause it feels like it would be extremely handy in getting an ID on so many critters (And the actual flora that catches my eye. ::B)! Heck, I was even thinking of mentioning in the post to kick off this thread, but just didn't bother for whatever reason. XXD

Admittedly I guess was a bit reluctant cause I don't know how well the privacy settings function because of the location data that goes on, but I imagine there's a lot of flexibility with the privacy at least. Need to mess with it either way.

Pinocchio been bullshitting

Chirp, I once took this photo of a bold jumping spider with a jewelry lens held up to my phone camera.

Fiendly wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 8:02 pm Pinocchio been bullshitting

Hidden text.

Weevils are just critters so filled lies and secrets...And a lot of nuts with how many they tend to bore into with their snouts. ::B

viv wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 8:21 pm Chirp, I once took this photo of a bold jumping spider with a jewelry lens held up to my phone camera.

Hidden text.

Beautiful pic! Seen these fellas on the webs here and there, and I’ve always loved the way this species of jumping spider have such colourfully shiny chelicerae, standing out from the rest of the black and white of its body. Gorgeous critter. ^^w^^

Oh, let's take a moment to appreciate bugs that are sadly victims of being anthropomorphized on main, for bad reasons.

You know, humans deciding to project human morals and behaviors onto them, to justify killing and hurting the lil guys... The golden classic, "Wasps are rude assholes, they attack everyone, also did you know how brutal they are when hunting" - no they are not. They don't live with the human standards of being rude and attacking everything around, just because they are angry and had a bad day. And also, their way of hunting is "brutal" by human standards, and they are not human, they are wasps...

Mites, wasps, flies, termites, cockroaches, and more... They are all very important for the ecosystem, and serve important roles. Pretty often, it's humans that get in their way, then blame the poor crawlers for everything, and use cherry-picked data and articles, to justify hurting them on a bigger scale

I'll post something more uplifting too, but I'll make a different reply for that (edit: I wanted to link some tutorials and resources on DIY bee watering stations and bug hotels, but... Well, the search engine is cluttered, and I want to give some trustworthy sources on what kind of water is the best for bees and other critters, and why you shouldn't just give them water with sugar... So unless someone in here has any links, I may need some time to actually look into that and find sources that you can trust, rather than pulling some 'trust the random Internet user')

Mosquitos.

There is a loud and not insignificant number of people who sincerely believe that the complete eradication of mosquitos is not only viable, but a way of bettering the world. Even bug positivity posts often end with something like "except mosquitos, they all need to die." It's a really ignorant, cruel sentiment that would, if fulfilled, devastate the entire food chain, in which mosquitos fill an indispensable role. So far, it's just a grim fantasy, but when ideas like this get popular enough without being challenged, people do ecologically devastating things to try and make them happen (like the banning of controlled burns in the US being a major contributor to modern wildfires).

All the bugs are good, in their own right and for the sake of the world at large.

Something more light-hearted... Spider paws awareness post