The Insect Close-ups Flickr Pool is full of fascinating pictures. There are all kinds of wonderful images to be found, of spiders, ladybugs, hornets, aphids, grasshoppers, worms, water striders and those superstars of the insect world, bees and butterflies. You can also search a map for pictures by location. If you want to take your own bug photographer Mark Plonsky has written a short how-to guide. He has taken some pretty great photographs of insects himself.
posted by Kattullus on Nov 21, 2008 - 14 comments

Butterfly farming, whether it's to provide live, captive-bred butterflies or framed insects, is a way for people to generate income by nurturing rainforest habitat rather than cutting it down. It's happening in places like Costa Rica, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. But you can also raise butterflies yourself.
posted by mcwetboy on Nov 2, 2002 - 6 comments

Loggers Said to Wipe Out 22 Million Butterflies It appears that 22 million Monarch butterflies were illegally slaughtered through the use of pesticide in two Mexican butterfly sanctuaries so that loggers can have more forest to tear down. This makes me sick... how can people do stuff like this?
posted by fusinski on Mar 6, 2001 - 20 comments

I used to raise lepidoptera as a kid. Other people still do, and some even sell livestock.
posted by plinth on Jun 2, 2000 - 0 comments