280 days of Urbpandemonium #95

In terms of beauty, I think flies are the most underappreciated order of insects. Look at this fancy iridescence! I guess it's because they aren't big and showy like butterflies or perfect little capsules like beetles. The fly pictured, Lucilia* sp., also lays its eggs in dead animals so that it's many maggots can feast on the putrescent flesh. Also feces, they like to eat feces. Don't knock the carrion flies, they're doing important work--work that YOU wouldn't do, so someone else has to.


* "born into light"

280 days of Urbpandemonium #96

For really great photos of candy-stripe leafhoppers, Graphocephala coccinea*, see here (BUG SEX WARNING). These adorable little pests use their adorable little beaks to suck juices out of plants--I think they're doing lots of adorable damage to our raspberries. These hoppers are part of the group called "sharpshooters," subfamily Cicadellinae.** Like their smaller, less hoppy relatives the aphids, they excrete excess fluid from their plant-sucking lifestyle. Unlike aphids, which slowly emit the stuff as payment in an ant-mafia protection racket, sharpshooters explosively fire droplets of liquid from their abdomen. Pew pew!

* "written-on-head, red like a berry"

** "Little cicada subfamily"