While people argue...✨💛🖤✨

Sun beetle (Pachnoda marginata peregrina) and Zophobas (Zophobas morio).

When I see them like this, I wonder what's going on in their heads.

How do others perceive the world? You never know. This applies to other people as well as to animals. The more egocentric you are, the more inclined you are to draw conclusions about others. But consciousness is one of the greatest mysteries. The fact that you cannot immerse yourself in the world of experiences of others is called qualia.

Qualia refer to the subjective, individual experiences of sensory perceptions and consciousness.

Qualia are inherently personal and cannot be fully communicated or understood by others.

This means there is no way of knowing what exactly is going on inside these cuties.

I suspect these beetles are trying to understand each other. At least their intentions. That's why they touch each other with their feelers.

But maybe it feels especially good when they do that. Similar to when people touch each other tenderly.

Biting Ladybug! Yes, I got bitten on the arm by a ladybug and it pinched a little! 🐞🤕

I last had a similar experience when I was six years old, when a ladybug bit me painfully in my best part.😅🤭

Until now I wasn't sure if the ladybug bit me or if its defensive secretion caused the pain. But it was definitely a bite both times.

🔍 So I did some research and it is actually known that the Asian ladybug (Harmonia axyridis) bites people from time to time. They do this from a lack of food or fluids. Allergic reactions are possible but very rare. It's very dry here at the moment because it's very warm and it rarely rains.

However, when I was bitten in 1992, the Asian ladybug had not yet been documented in the wild in Germany. The first record of free-ranging Asian ladybugs in Europe was in Belgium in 2001.

In the meantime, one finds almost exclusively Asian ladybugs (images 1 and 2).

⚠️ Two-spot ladybugs (images 3 and 4) and other native ladybug species are now classified as highly endangered.

This two-spot ladybug (Adalia bipunctata) got lost in my room yesterday. It is a rare color variant, found in 15 percent of the species. Two-spotted ladybugs are usually red with a black spot on each elytra. The black variant is black, with two to three red spots per elytra.

A Dubia cockroach (Blaptica dubia) that extrudes and retracts the ootheca. But what is it and why does it do that? The egg packets of cockroaches and mantises are called ootheca. The Dubia cockroach is ovoviviparous, meaning the eggs remain in the body until the young are ready to hatch. The extruding of the ootheca occurs because it's the only way to move them from the ovary chamber to the brood chamber.

I keep a small group of cockroaches because they are good food for my animals. The terrarium is set up with an 11 to 15 centimeter high layer of coconut soil, which is piled up like a slope towards the back wall of the terrarium. In the lower area there are branches, leaves and pieces of bark, where the animals stay the most. The upper area stays free, only the feeding bowl is there. I only keep the soil slightly moist in places. These areas are visited by the animals from time to time and also cover their drinking needs. Springtails and microorganisms also live in the soil, which help to keep the terrarium clean. It smells very good like forest floor.

Many startle when they hear the word cockroach. Only about 30 species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. In a normal living situation, there is no need to worry about an infestation by these animals.

There is only one Summer of Love for European june beetles (Amphimallon solstitiale) and about two-thirds are males. 😄

This species of scarab is often found on oak trees. Rhizotrogus aestivus flies at twilight from April to June and provides a significant food source during this time - especially for pregnant greater horseshoe bats after their hibernation. But there are no greater horseshoe bats in Hesse. The last sighting was in 1924. There are still a few in Rhineland-Palatinate. The bat species is threatened with extinction because it is running out of food and there is less and less habitat available, e.g. old attics.

Yesterday I met this beautiful oak splendour beetle (Agrilus biguttatus) in the ruins of the Falkenstein Castle.🌞🏰🌳

Sun beetles and their cocoons 🌞
Pachnoda marginata peregrina

Madagascar hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa)

I used to keep this species as a pet for many years.

They reach a size of about 5 to 8 cm and live up to 5 years. They don't have wings, but they can easily scale smooth glass.

The offspring looks cute. They are so-called nymphs, so they already look very similar to the adults. Only in tiny.

The tiny ones were always great escape artists. Again and again I collected the little adventurers and freed them from fluff.

The adults live in groups and communicate by hissing noises.
There are three different hissing sounds. Both sexes can do the disturbance hiss "F*ck off!".

Only males can make two more sounds: the female-attracting hiss and the aggressive fighting hiss. The males can be recognized by their horns and bushy antennae. There is one in the middle of the second picture.

The females have humps instead of horns.

Females carry their eggs (ootheca) internally, and release the young nymphs only after her offspring have emerged within her. After that, they usually stay close together for some time.

I have a larva for you!🤗

Sun beetle 🌞,
Pachnoda marginata peregrina

It's a species of flower chafers 🌸 (a group of scarabs) from west and central Africa. The larvae are called grubs.
I sometimes feed them to my animals.
Very rich food! 😋

Ichneumon wasp,
Ophion obscuratus

I found this male in the house last night and brought him back outside. It's a nocturnal parasitic wasp species. Females look for caterpillars and inject one egg per host. The caterpillars remain alive until the wasp larva reaches its final instar. The adults feed mainly on plant sap and nectar and continue enjoying their lives. This species is one of the few that fly around even in winter. It's distribution area includes the entire Palearctic and Indomalaya.

Some representatives of the ichneumon wasps (not this one) carry a special virus in their genome and use it to produce virions, which after injection influence the host's behavior, metabolism and immune system.