You though it was dead. It was not

Nature Talk
1

I found this bee. I thought it was dead because it wasn’t moving. It was not dead.

Brown-belted Bumble Bee (Bombus griseocollis) from The Blue Mountains, ON, Canada on July 25, 2026 at 10:14 AM by Im-a_cat-purrson · iNaturalist

Anyone else found any creatures that looked dead but weren’t?

2

This poor cicada could barely move only 2 legs, nothing else.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/393572722

3

I once found a yellowjacket at the pool that i assumed was dead. I brought it home and pinned it, and when I checked on it later, its abdomen had moved and there was frass beneath it. I felt so bad.

4

I thought this stag beetle had drowned, so I fished it out of the water and left it to dry. It revived and I had to recapture and release it.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/127177616

5

don’t know why, but it’s more the other way around for me

I see an animal, very often insects, get my phone/camera ready, make a tele-photo from far away, insect still there- not moving. Very slowly I get closer, taking many photos on the way, until I reach macro realm - just to find out, the insect is dead, or an exoskeleton of a just molted spider …

6

Just the other day I found a wasp that looked dead, I actually waited like 30 seconds to see if it was really dead (imagine trying to carry around a living wasp!). At least it couldn’t fly over and sting me, just crawled around.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/393752434

7

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/394817606