About the size of a house fly but unaccountably much longer in the abdomen, with long legs, and in color resembling a flesh fly (red eyes, black and white striped thorax, black and white striped abdomen), this is in fact a stiletto fly, Penniverpa festina. You’d think something this big would have more than a…
Tag: striped
Blue-Winged Grasshopper
This photo was taken in Costa Maya in 2019. (I’m walking around visiting ancient ruins — Kohunlich, for the curious — and taking photos of insects. I know, I have problems.) These little red-and-black insects are juvenile (probably about second instar) blue-winged grasshopper nymphs (Tropidacris collaris) clustering together. As adults, they’ll be huge — up…
Bristly Millipede
This one led me a merry chase through “first instar caterpillar”, “bagworm” and even “beetle larva” until finally an article about dermestid beetle larvae turned up a photo of a duff millipede. This is a millipede! Would you believe it? This extremely tiny (3mm) creature looks, at first glance, like a piece of lint. Getting…