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If you want your bug identified, please include the location it was found. Location can be removed upon request from submissions (but not from asks).

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How Rain Evolved Its Distinct Scent—and Why Animals and Humans Love It

New research reveals the ancient symbiotic relationship behind geosmin, the chemical compound responsible for the scent of fresh rain

The distinctive, earthy smell of fresh rain isn’t just wet dirt. According to new research, it’s the chemical potion bacteria have been using to attract tiny arthropods for more than 400 million years.

Read the full article here.

Photo by Ryan Hodnett

Article by Alex Fox via SmithsonianMag

Little dude!! They’re an American carrion beetle :)

Yep! Likely a goldenrod crab spider. I love her :)

Amazon thorn spider, Micrathena schreibersi, Araneidae (orbweavers)

Photos by Art Anker // Facebook

Shared with permission; do not remove credit or re-post!

OUghhhh she's beautiful look at her spiky butt!!! Excellent fashion choices. She's a spined Micrathena aka castleback orbweaver, for those curious.

Is she just...hanging there by one leg lol? Cute. She's a bald-faced hornet as far as I can tell.

Looks cockroach-shaped to me but I’d really need a clear photo to say for sure or which kind it might be.

Hello! 'Tis a larger elm leaf beetle :)

Hehehe long butt

She is a spinybacked orbweaver and that’s very far north for her!

Yep, it's a golden tortoise beetle larva with a beautiful fecal shield!

The absolute SHAPE of this woman!! Incredible. She's a bicolored crown of thorns wasp - crown wasps are parasitoids, usually of wood-boring beetle larvae. The long ovipositor is used for laying eggs and not for stinging.

A closer look at her because I think she's deeply worth admiring:

Wow :')

Photo by eframgoldberg

Hello! This lil dude is precious! Looks like a dog day cicada in the genus Neotibicen, probably a superb dog-day cicada, but I’d need to see a photo of the markings on the top side to be sure.

What a cutie! I love to show bugs to kids, they always appreciate them so much. Just a lil funnel weaver probablyyyyy a grass spider in the genus Agelenopsis. They are VERY fast!