Mini-Beasts

	Sweat Bee (bicolored striped) Agapostemon virescens
	As the common name suggests, these bees will feed on sweat to benefit from the salts as nutrients, though as their Latin name suggests (Agapostemon = stamen loving), they mainly feed on flowers like other bees, and are good pollinators. - Additionally, this specific type of sweat bee is the official bee of Toronto... whatever that means.

Eastern Carpenter Bee Xylocopa virginica

A charming fuzzy fellow who wants to chew holes in your fence. - Carpenter bees are similar in appearance to bumblebees, but with a glossy black bottom. - Females often nest in small groups, with one dominant female, where a nest entrance often branches off with separate rooms for each female. Males often busy themselves being territorial, which since the males can't sting, mostly involves a lot of hovering and flying at things.

Blue Moon Butterfly Hypolimnas bolina

This is a female. The male has bolder markings, including a blue/white circle on each rear wing, while lacking the pale, speckled fringe on the outer edge of the wings. The caterpillars are predominantly black with numerous orange spikes. - This photo was taken inside a butterfly house, not in the wild. Their natural range includes tropical and sub-tropical habitats in Madagascar, Asia, and Australia.

Blue dasher Dragonfly Pachydiplax longipennis

Yes, thats its actual Latin name, which is in reference to its appearance of long wings in comparison to the female's short abdomen. This is an adult male, which is predominantly a soft shade of blue, with green eyes. Females have a markedly different appearance, with black-brown and yellow stripes, with red eyes. Females lay eggs below the surface, and their larva are known as naiads. As with other dragonflies, they predominantly eat insects, including mosquitoes.

	Red-Legged Grasshopper Melanoplus femurrubrum
	Grasshoppers are capable of flight, and are excellent at jumping and being crunchy.

	Greenbottle Fly Lucilia sericata
	Greenbottles are blowflies, which typically lay their eggs in decaying flesh, but also commonly in the wool of sheep for their larvae (maggots) to feed on living flesh. These maggots can also be used medically to clean wounds. Adults feed opportunistically on flowers, carrion, feces, and your sandwich.

	Emerald Swallowtail Butterfly Papilio palinurus
	I consider these among the most beautiful of butterflies. As with many butterflies, their main colouration is created by the microstructure of its wing scales rather than pigment (in this case reflecting blue and yellow light, creating the appearance of green). - This photo was taken inside a butterfly house, not in the wild. Its native habitat is within primary forests of southeast Asia.

	Japanese Beetle Popillia japonica
	A delightfully coloured species of scarab beetle, which is unfortunately rather invasive and destructive outside of its native range. Their larvae feed on grassy roots underground, and adults will devour foliage, leaving only the bare leaf veins behind.

	Broad-Winged Katydid Microcentrum rhombifolium
	Excellent leaf mimics, named after their call, which is produced via rubbing their forewings (stridulation), similar to crickets.

	Chinese Mantis Tenodera sinensis
	Charming yet voracious ambush predators. Mantids feed mostly on insects, but may take on anything within their reach (especially the larger females). - Their colouration may be green, brown, or a combination of the two. And although they appear to have pupils, which add to their sense of character, this is caused by an effect of light on their compound eyes.

	Sawfly Dolerus...
	Easily mistaken for a caterpillar, this is the larva of a Sawfly (there are different species, but I am unsure of which this is). Some of these species love to join forces with Japanese beetles in eating my roses. - Some sawfly larvae sometimes lie on leaves curled up liked a cat, making it harder to me to kill them without feeling bad.

Tobacco Hornworm Manduca sexta

The tobacco hornworn is the caterpillar of a carolina sphinx moth (the adult has a mottled grey appearance). They look very similar to the tomato hornworm, but posses a red spike instead of a blue-black one. Both like to eat your tomato plants, and both can metabolise nicotine and use it as a defense; unfortunately for this fellow, it did not protect from being parasitised by braconid wasp larvae (during the later stages, small white cocoons resembling rice covered its body).

Catrantula
Another pointless creation by Jodie
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