It's a species of Heterotoma, probably Heterotoma planicornis (Flathorn Plant Bug) -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterotoma_planicornis

https://www.naturespot.org/species/hete ... lanicornis

adamcotton wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 9:50 am No it isn't. This is Papilio daedalus from the Philippines, a closely related but separate species...

Thank you for pointing this out. This likely means that many of the specimens that I've seen labeled as palinurus, including ones in my own collection, are actually probably daedalus.

Correct - this is Papilio palinurus, commonly known as the emerald swallowtail. Yes, it's completely legal to own specimens of this species in the US, and it's very common in collections, as well as butterfly houses. It's reared commercially in captivity in large numbers, and ranges over quite a ...

Somerstamp wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 8:17 pm I had no idea that dobsonfly larva could be so big and not be totally submerged in water.
Awesome. Thank you!

If it was under a rock near the river, it was almost certainly preparing to metamorphose into an adult. They seek out some protected spot on land to go through this phase.

It's what's known as a hellgramite, which is the larval form of a dobsonfly. The larvae are aquatic, while adult dobsonflies are winged -

https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/hellgrammite

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobsonfly

In New York, the local species of dobsonfly is Corydalus ...

Very nice! Certainly, this must be among the most impressive of the larger pierids. Of note in this species, is that its wings contain glacontryphan-M, a potent peptide toxin, which is also a component of the venom of cone snails (Conus spp.). Cone snails use this peptide (delivered via a stab ...

Very nice! Certainly, this must be among the most impressive of the larger pierids. Of note in this species, is that its wings contain glacontryphan-M, a potent peptide toxin, which is also a component of the venom of cone snails (Conus spp.). Cone snails use this peptide (delivered via a stab from ...

Hello,

Today when i was outside i noticed these very small insects? They either fell from the sky or blew from somewhere, like small flakes. There are problably hundreds of them, all dead, where i live in middle of Sweden. Any idea of what they are? They are roughly 1-2mm in size.


These ...

That's very nice work indeed!

Thank you for posting. The nireus species group is among my favorites of the African Papilios, with their iridescent, greenish/bluish markings.

Yes - Gasteruption, but I'm unsure of which species.

Many thanks for posting; wonderful photos!

It appears to be an Ichneumon of the genus Metopius, possibly M. citratus or M fuscipennis -

https://wildbristol.uk/groups/bees-wasp ... -citratus/

https://uk.inaturalist.org/taxa/1093791 ... uscipennis

Interesting! I'm confident I've never seen a snakefly of any kind; plenty of mantidflies, but I've only ever seen snakeflies from photos. I've not yet seen a scorpionfly, either.

It's difficult to ID from the photo; it could possibly be a Loxosceles, but might actually be a philodromid crab spider, based in the fact that the second pair of legs are very noticeably longer than the rest -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philodromidae

https://bugguide.net/node/view/1964/bgimage

Possibly, they are biscuit beetles (Stegobium paniceum) -

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/identif ... guide.html

It appears to be a small, solitary wasp of some kind, although I am not sure of the species. Stings from these wasps are usually minor, and leave no lasting effects.

Very nice!

I saw that huge number of spam posts, earlier. Certainly, it was a bot attack. Sadly, there are now bots roaming all over the web that spend all day, every day, just looking for forums to spam. I'm not sure if the internet is ever again going to be what it once was. It's calculated that bots now ...

Knowing that others' collections number in the thousands (or even tens of thousands ) of specimens, makes me somewhat relieved that my own only consists of hundreds :roll:. It's not a collection of any real scientific significance anyway, and many of the specimens are ones that have been passed ...