638
Fairies 🧚♀️ 🧚♂️
(mander.xyz)
I'm afraid it's not so shrimple
it's just a hummingbird moth Who's acting like a bird that thinks it's a bee
Now the moth defeats the mouse and man, it's messing with the plan, it can't be believed.
Sadly they ravage tomatoes and other nightshade while theyre caterpillars so people often kill them with impugnity. Probably contributes to why theyre not commonly seen.
They're terrifying in real life though because they look and sound like GIANT bees. But then when you see them chilling by a flower you realize they're actually just big ol softies
And the larvae are these giant gross green caterpillars with a horn on their butt. Big squishy things that love tomato plants.
I used to see both all the time on the farm. Both scared the crap out of me when I was small. (Thinking the caterpillar could sting and that the moth was a gigantic bee)
I used to think they were a type of bee when I was little.
Same, that's how I learned about them, my mom had to figure out what they were so I wasn't afraid to play in the yard!
I usually do a double take thinking they're a bumblebee before noticing that they move different when I spot them.
I would love to see a diagram of how its morphology changed through time and evolution, I bet it's wild
That’s a Pokémon.
More cute bugs pls
Sometimes a cutie is just a cutie, defying classification
Like those damned jumping spiders. They freak me out, but I can't deny they're cute as hell.
When they look at me with those big mirror eyes, I say "just take my house it's yours now"
First time I saw one of these in my garden I thought I was trippin
Fun fact: in the northeast US and eastern Canada, you can support their entire life cycle by planting tomatoes and Monarda spp together!
If these are fairies, then are mantis shrimp like some Lovecraftian monstrosity from the arthropod Unseelie Court?
Because shrimp is bugs
I'm guessing, it's this species: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemaris_thysbe
(Apparently, this species is also referred to as "hummingbird moth": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird_hawk-moth )
this is the kind of thing i want to see in fantasy/scifi media, everything looks broadly the same until you get closer and realize all the trees are actually heavily derived insects.
this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
638 points (99.1% liked)
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