I was checking the new bingo card for my area and discover that Double-banded Grass-Veneer and the Four-spotted Mantidfly was each spotted at least once in my area. I kinda regret learning this fact after looking at their pictures on their pages. Especially the mantidfly.
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I would say those two are very pretty species I’d like to observe (always happy to see Crambidae, they have cute fluffy heads), but closest to an ugly insect I can name are Hippoboscidae when their abdomen is filled with blood, for some reason it’s blue and reminds me both of ticks and mammal skin, plus they are very fast and even if you catch them – hard to kill.
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Hey, they’re not ugly, that’s up to you. I searched for them in google and to me they aren’t ugly at all.
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Yeah, sorry. Not able to followthis logic. Both mentioned examples I find very beautyful. Found a mantidfly once and was just very amazed by it.
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No ugly insects exist in my area, or any area I know of. Even the scarce few I do not like are not ugly.
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They are gorgeous!!!
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Mantidflies have the most beautiful gem-like eyes, and the grass-veneer has some lovely intricate detailing on its wings <3 Thanks for pointing them out for us to see!
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Tachinid flies, every last one of those bristly monsters 
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I’m a bit of a fan of the micro-moths and crambid snout types.
I did observe a fly the other day that was ID’d as genus Empis. While they’re interesting I couldn’t say it’s a looker.
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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Tachinid flies are so diverse. on a scale of beauty vs beast, i think many of them fall very much on the beauty side. examples:
- a feather-legged fly: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/113317807
- a fly with an orange abdomen: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107346565
- a skinny one with red side patches: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/111264476
i think the ugliest insects are the invasive ones or ones that are major vectors of disease or decimate crops. for example, certain Aedes mosquitos species are both invasive where i live and also transmit disease. so quite ugly from that perspective (though i think other mosquitoes can be quite beautiful: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/12221330).
here’s a clearwing moth that seems to be a wasp mimic that is beautiful in a way but also has a certain hard-to-look-away-from-a-car-crash quality, too: https://youtu.be/kAU-zisU1o0.
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True! I’m not fond of maggots, but I don’t think they are ugly. I really can’t think of anything (human or not) that I consider ugly. Odd, perhaps, but not ugly. Even invasive species - I don’t particularly like them, but aesthetically speaking, they are fine.
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The feather-legged fly looks like a little cowboy with spurs on its boots lol
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I’m sorry, but insects that mimic bird droppings are ugly to me.
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What? How could you not want to hug this critter? https://inaturalist.nz/observations/35079577
Even better, their egg sacs look like profiteroles.
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I am seeing a bunch of threads which refer to ugly species, cringe species etc etc. I also see that these threads get traction - I wonder if that social media bias of “fear sells” or “controversy sells” also contributes to this “attraction”
If there was a down vote button I would surely use that on these threads.
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On this platform? Or on others? I have found on this platform that “controversy sells” is not really a major feature. People tend to remain fairly civil. I’ve seen a few topics - domestic cats outside being one - that arouse passions, and heated conversations, but by-in-large there are few controversial posts.
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I must say from the back it’s not the cutest spider.) I like our steatoda-s, the whole family has beautiful red/black spiders.
@ram_k there was a topic about that too, I’m actually surprised this one got some voices against it, last time people told me it’s ok when gorgeous birds are called some bad words.
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We have a couple of Steatoda species imported from South Africa that are encroaching on our stunning Katipo (Latrodectus katipo). I could say that they’re ugly on the inside… 
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That must be a family trait, they’re pretty similar to Latrodectus. Two species thrived in our house when we had fruit fly infestation, now I’m very sorry for them, as there shouldn’t be enough cloth moths that get in their nets, so I relocate them when I find one just walking somewhere.
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