Definitely the rosy aemilia moth!
4 Likes
Probably the easiest way to do this is to take rapid fire photos in burst mode with your phone, upload to Google photos and then create an animation which saves as a gif. Gif* format photos can be uploaded to iNat.
*Off topic but #TeamJif
2 Likes
Using bug in the most extreme lay person sense, as opposed to the most direct hemipteran sense…
Ever since I was a kid carrying around my collins gem spider book, as kids do. This page has made me want to see one.
I will be in Colombia later this year, so probably wont see that exact species, but using the common name, still seems a few options https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=7196&taxon_id=53388&view=species
Insect wise any of the possible Hercules beetles there https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?locale=en&place_id=7196&taxon_id=83805&view=species
True bug wise there
Ant mimicing treehopper https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/518287-Cyphonia-clavata
Peanut headed lanternfly https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/83469-Fulgora-laternaria
Or Cladonota https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?locale=en&place_id=7196&taxon_id=501033&view=species
4 Likes
i still haven’t seen any fireflies! they are either really late or had a population crash here. :(
2 Likes
Do fireflies have cyclical population variations? Or, was the weather very different
That’s sounds sad. Any speculations as to why?
We had an unusually cold* winter and spring in California. Flying insects of many kinds seem kind of sparse for June.
*Had to laugh two weeks ago when I spoke to a man who just emigrated from Siberia. He said he moved to the Bay Area in December and was just freezing in January and February. I said, ‘really, after leaving Siberia in winter?’. ( he admitted he spent 4 weeks in Mexico between leaving Siberia and moving to San Jose. ) But, still, a Siberian native felt miserably cold here in the Bay Area this past winter.
2 Likes
Oh my goodness! Once I started spending extended periods in the Dominican Republic, it seemed bug-ket list insects just started coming to me. Tetrio sphinx caterpillars. Fire beetles (a big click beetle that lights up brighter than any firefly). Tailless whipscorpions (not insects, but still…).
But my biggest bug-ket list critter does not occur in the Caribbean: the white witch moth. For that, I believe I would have to visit the Amazon.
3 Likes
The weather has been all over the place, super weird. The fireflies actually seem to like heat, and we are more on the north edge of their range. But we had an extremely damaging late freeze and also after one very hot week at the end of May, June has been really cold
3 Likes
Luna moth is high on my list. When I was in Ecuador 
I saw elegant dragonfly that floated in the air as it flew. Very atypical for Odonata flight in my opinion. I followed it for many seconds to get a pic but was in the woods and unfamiliar territory so did not wanna be too far off of the others I was with. Anyway, large in length. Wings 🪽 had large spots on it. Skinny tail. I’d go back just for that specific insect. It was in Reserva De Canande, Chico lodge area. Was amazing and so unique and left an indelible mark on my memory.
2 Likes
Luna moths aren’t too uncommon here, i see one every year or two, but of course get excited each time. I hope i can verify one in my yard project that would be awesome.
I live in Brazil and enormous Brazilian Wandering Spiders show up fairly regularly in my house. Most recently on the outside of a glass door, but I have also been in the shower and realised I was sharing it with one, which gives a little rush of adrenaline. Photos don’t really do them justice - this is a big spider!
1 Like
Yeah context in photos is always tricky, like this is one of my fave arachnids to see. but catching scale is tricky But you can see from our national museums pics of a related species that its only a few mm in the body.
We dont really get large spiders here this is the largest I have seen in my region which seemed quite a chance sighting since I was helping with research in that location, and its a species mostly in burrows.
not a great image, but this is probably the largest (size not weight) that I have handled. Largest weight would probably be a Chilean Rose I worked with in a education program when I was in the states.
So in your experience, are they as aggressive as “they” say. Or like many things more hype.
1 Like
Well, it’s also on my “see in the new season” list, but the Roseate Skimmer is a perpetual wanna-see. Colorado is in their range, if barely, and they’ve been spotted as far north as Boulder. One was seen at the southwest edge of the Metro area, so I may have a fighting chance.
1 Like
In my experience, they just stay still until you get close to them, and then if they have the opportunity, they’ll run away (disconcertingly fast). If they feel cornered or you’re trying to put something over them, they will rear up and lift the front two pairs of legs, which is why they get the reputation for aggression. I wouldn’t be comfortable getting close enough to let one walk on my hand, for example, but yeah, there’s a lot of hype.
Beautiful!
Cool, thats my experience with many ambush hunting spiders. In terms of not moving until you get close. We have a couple Mygalomorphs that I have seen rear up, but they are still relatively harmless ones I don’t mind carefully handling. It does seem most spider stuff is hype, so its always interesting to see peoples real experiences. And cheers.
1 Like
Any large dynastid or lucanid beetle really.
3 Likes
I know wheel bugs may be pretty pedestrian in most of the country, but they’re not actually present in my region, so if I travel to someplace that has wheel bugs I want to find one. And most of our other Reduviidae like the orange assassin and milkweed assassin.
4 Likes
I’d love to see some yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) in action sometime. I just think the descriptions that I’ve read about the way they move around is funny.
Several have been taken off the list in the last year but some remain for Connecticut and the New England area:
Sphinx drupiferarum
Apantesis parthenice
Apantesis doris
A wild CT Cecropia Moth adult (only saw cocoons in CT)
Catocala semirelicta
Catocala briseis
A northeast Black Witch
Lithophane quequera
Psectroglaea carnosa
Derrima stellata
In Florida the Giant Sphinx and Fig Sphinx
1 Like
flash pattern is often always diagnostic when paired with habitat. The easiest way to observe these is to take a video and then convert it into a gif since timing is also very important in identification.
1 Like
First adult Saturniidae came to the UV lamp https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/168600468 and a bonus underwing moth at my porch lights. I love summer nights! (cue Rascal Flatts song)
I also saw a diurnal firefly in northern Arizona, close enough 
5 Likes