North American Insects and Spiders - 7000+ close-ups of wolf spiders, black widows, honeybees, a ladybug eating an aphid, gulf fritillary butterflies, praying mantises, and much, much more
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jul 17, 2009 - 44 comments

The Uprising Of The Ants: "Alexandra Achenbach and Susanne Foitzik from Ludwig Maximillians Universty in Munich found that some of the kidnapped workers don't bow to the whims of their new queen. Once they have matured, they start killing the pupae of their captors, destroying as many as two-thirds of the colony's brood. "
posted by The Whelk on Apr 2, 2009 - 32 comments

Young American woman eats praying mantis. Asian woman eats large black scorpion. Young Asian woman eating insect while exploitative Westerner goads her. Drunk American woman eats cicada, with much trepidation. Middle aged western man eats giant chinese cockroach. Katie eats a potato bug.
posted by Meatbomb on Feb 10, 2009 - 54 comments

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the Fluorescent Pink Katydid [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin on Nov 30, 2008 - 36 comments

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

In the little town of Enterprise, Alabama, there stands a bizarre statue that would make any card-carrying surrealist proud: an archetypical Greek goddess raises her arms toward heaven and holds high above her head... an enormous insect. Of course, it's the boll weevil. That cotton-eatin' critter inspired not only the world's only monument to an agricultural pest, but some great tunes as well, from a wide range of artists. [note: see hoverovers for link descriptions] [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on Jul 15, 2008 - 35 comments

What would make origami cool? Insects, of course! Click "写真の一覧" for thumbnails. [more inside]
posted by Citizen Premier on Sep 16, 2007 - 12 comments

Miniature Robotic Insect Takes Off Researchers have created a miniature robotic fly that weighs just 60 milligrams and has a wingspan of three centimeters for covert surveillance. Thats progress!
posted by ItsaMario on Jul 22, 2007 - 17 comments

giant creepy things want to eat you
posted by MetaMonkey on Feb 4, 2007 - 37 comments

Google Demonstrates Capabilities of Space Based Weapon on 50m Insect Menacing German Town All you folks saying Google wasn't out to take over the world, where are your arguments now? Google now has the capability to destroy enormous mutant bugs from space.
posted by fenriq on Jan 5, 2007 - 23 comments

The origins and evolution of human intelligence: parasitic insects? viruses? mushrooms? neural darwinism? foraging? machiavellian competition? emergence? or something else?
posted by MetaMonkey on Jul 24, 2006 - 26 comments

The Asian Giant Hornet is cool, unless it's baked. Japanese honeybees can detect the hornet's secretion and they attack en masse. With approximately 500 honeybees surrounding the hornet in a tight ball, the temperature within the cluster rises to 47 degrees Celsius which bakes the hornet alive.
posted by tellurian on Jun 8, 2006 - 35 comments

Winnipeg's mosquito population explodes "Heavy rains throughout June and early July have flooded farmlands and fields, leaving pools of water that are perfect for mosquito breeding." The Manitoba government has ordered Winnipeg to spray the controversial chemical malathion across the city. A survey reveals that the vast majority of Manitobans who have contracted West Nile virus have no idea they have been infected. Recommended repellants have contained the chemical DEET and sixty percent of Americans shy away from any insect repellent, even when the mosquito-borne West Nile Virus is a serious threat. CDC has more information and FAQ about insect repellent use and safety.
posted by webmeta on Jul 15, 2005 - 15 comments

Desperate Houseflies : "In the backdrop of a picture-perfect neighborhood called Diphtheria Lane live six suburban houseflies whose lives are anything but perfect."
posted by dhruva on Feb 24, 2005 - 9 comments

Insect sounds : "but have you heard a rice weevil larva eating inside a wheat kernel, a termite cutting a piece of wood, or a grub chewing on a root?"
posted by dhruva on Feb 23, 2005 - 10 comments

My Tiny Garden. (Note: Flash; via milton.)
posted by misteraitch on Jun 16, 2004 - 5 comments

The Insect Company: "Over 6,000 listings with more than 1,600 life-size reference photographs."
posted by hama7 on Jun 1, 2003 - 6 comments

They're ugly. I mean small and really ugly! And they don't do us any favors at all. We can hold each other's hands, and share support. Our fight against them may lead to knowledge in other battles, but I think its time to go on the offensive. Its time to defang the beastie. (Maybe I should have posted this at Warfilter instead?)
posted by Wulfgar! on May 20, 2003 - 20 comments

Periodical cicadas , the 13-year and 17-year varieties made up of 23 separate broods, sometimes emerge concurrently, as they did in Missouri in 1998. The result of their combined mating calls is a cacaphony. There are many different varieties of calls: those by Magicicada cassini, Magicicada septendecim and Magicicada septendecula are just a few. Brood XXIII is due this year. The prime numbers of the two cycles make it difficult for predators to evolve matching breeding cycles. More cicada links.
posted by TurkeyMustard on Jun 28, 2002 - 26 comments