the crane fly is one of my favorite bugs because it’s in the center area of a venn diagram of etymology and entomology since I have heard like 10 different names for this particular bug. I picked up galanipper from my mom who got it from her mom and apparently that term is localized to pennsylvania, where she was born. Around where I live, people call them mosquito eaters or skeetereater, but I think these guys are herbivores so.
also my fave because they are so chill and let me get like an inch away with my phone and largely dgaf unless you poke them.
Heck yeah!
My favorite is the assassin bug that disguises itself in the corpses of its victims.
Also, here are some leaf bug nymphs that decorate themselves with poop tubes
And honestly, I left out one of the best examples: caddisflies, who make their cocoons out of pebbles from the streambeds they live in. People raise them in all sorts of interesting media and steal their pupal cases after for jewelry!
The Assassin bug is so metal! 🤘🏻
and here we see the three types of insect fashion: punk, glam, and feces
ohmigod, the answer to that is actually really cool!
it’s because they were in her pouch!
that’s right, the female pillbug/sowbug has a pouch on her belly, just like a kangaroo (it’s fancy name is a “marsupium”!)
she lays her eggs into it, carries them for a few days until they hatch, and then carries the babies for 3-7 days more until they’re big enough to safely emerge from her pouch and set off into the world on their own.
Here’s a pic of a female with eggs in her pouch:
And here’s a a harder to see pic of a female carrying her babies all safely tucked away:
(The white organs at the base of her abdomen are her book lungs/pleopods, by the way. They’re basically land gills!)
Aquatic pillbugs do this too!
Here’s a giant isopod (the biggest type, they live deep in the ocean) being a cute armadillo crab,
and here’s one with her babies in her pouch!
it’s a kangaroo-armadillo-crab-mom
the best type of mom :3
Now I’m just distracted because this would be such a great lusus for a fantroll
Yogg-Sarongurt 