Mumetopia occipitalis

A small anthomyzid fly patrols a sweet potato leaf in an urban garden. Austin, Texas, USA.

Priochilus sp

A spider wasp with prey in the Ecuadorian cloud forest. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Pompilidae

Spiders with long legs can be awkward to carry, so some spider wasps pull the legs off their paralyzed (but still living!) prey. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Spartocera pantomima

A leaf-footed bug hanging out in the cloud forest. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador

Spartocera pantomima

Although this tropical leaf-footed bug is colored to mimic a predatory assassin bug, the long beak extending back past the front legs gives away its identity as sap-feeder. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Spartocera pantomima

An aposomatically-colored leaf-footed bug. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Gigantiops destructor

Gigantiops destructor, worker Peru, Tambopata: Puerto Maldonado 12.5984ºS 69.2179ºW 200m 30.vii.2016 A.L.Wild #ALW5709 UTIC 200780

Apis mellifera

Austin, Texas, USA.

Alchisme

This treehopper mother is so dedicated to guarding her eggs (in the leaf vein behind) that she apparently tolerated spiders laying webs over her thorns. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Acrocinus longimanus

Portrait of a male harlequin longhorn beetle, one of the largest and most recognizeable insects of the American tropics. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Trissolcus sp.

A tiny parasitoid wasp lurks among a clutch of stink bug eggs. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Wandering spider killed by fungus

Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Phanolinus

A colorful rove beetle from the Ecuadorian cloud forest. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Oncometopia orbona

Broad-headed sharpshooter. Stengl Lost Pines Biological Station, Texas, USA.

Megachile

A leafcutter bee gathers pollen from a summer aster. Saint Louis, Missouri.

Solenopsis invicta

Winged fire ant females scale vegatation prior to launching themselves on a late spring mating flight. Brackenridge Field Laboratory, Austin, Texas, USA.

Hogna

Up close with a large female Hogna wolf spider. Rumley, Texas, USA.

Richardia sp.

Competition among flies that size each other up by gauging the width of fly heads has evolved bizarre results in the Neotropical genus Richardia, the hammerhead flies. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Brachymyrmex modestus

A small worker of one of the smallest species of one of the smallest ant genera. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Pheidole sp.

Although roughly 15,000 ant species have been formally described, thousands more await scientific diagnoses and names. This Ecuadorian big-headed ant, related to the better-studied Pheidole biconstricta, is among them. Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador.