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Swarmie_photos, Sassari (2026)

07/11/2024

𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒖𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒖𝒔 ♂ [adult] (𝘈𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦)
Body length: 13-18 mm ♂, 17-25 mm ♀
IT - Cortippo bruno
EN - Common field grasshopper
Conservation status (IUCN): LEAST CONCERN

20/10/2024 - This little creature's song means a lot to me. Sardinia can get pretty dry in the hot season, and with the high temperatures all grasses turn yellow and brown. There's even a historical region here called "𝙇𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙙𝙤𝙧𝙤", which literally means "golden place", due to the immense fields of dry wheat that still cover the area.

These grasshoppers feed on these grasses and with their mostly brown exoskeleton they easily go unnoticed by predators, so they love it here. My father's family owns some farmlands, so every time I walked in the fields in the summer I could hear their peculiar song, called 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣, produced by rubbing several spikes they have on their hind legs onto their elytra, like many other species of the family 𝘈𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦. These songs are mostly produced by males during mating season, when they compete for females by having actual singing duels.

Continues in the comments section ⬇️

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📷 Shot on α7 III - with 100 mm CA-Dreamer macro lens, NW880s flash and DIY diffuser

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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05/11/2024

𝑷𝒚𝒓𝒓𝒉𝒐𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒖𝒔 [adult] (𝘗𝘺𝘳𝘳𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦)
Body length: 8-12 mm
IT - Insetto carabiniere
EN - Firebug
Conservation status (IUCN): NOT EVALUATED

13/10/2024 - I know it's far too late for a Halloween-themed post, but who cares, we love bugs every single day. 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙙𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙖 is the tendency to detect an object, pattern or shape when in reality there is none, like when you see a face on the tapestry or on the... back of a bug, of course. I mean, don't you see an aggressive tribal mask on its back? Is it just me?

Anyways, I think most of us have already seen this very common insect, probably in large groups, unlike this one in my photos, which was chilling alone on a step in a warm, sunny area, just as they like. They're also quite easy to spot, with their very contrasted red and black exoskeleton, showing a typical example of 𝙖𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙘 colouration to deter predators. I've always seen them since I was little in my hometown, along with many other species of the seemingly-related-but-not-quite-so-red-and-black-bugs gang (like 𝑺𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒆𝒈𝒚𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒖𝒔, 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒖𝒔 𝒉𝒚𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒚𝒂𝒎𝒊, 𝑬𝒖𝒓𝒚𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒂 𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒂, 𝑷𝒆𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒖𝒔, 𝑺𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒖𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒖𝒔 and many others). Those colours must be really fashionable in the bug cities.

Continues in the comments section ⬇️

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📷 Shot on α7 III - with 100 mm CA-Dreamer macro lens, NW880s flash and DIY diffuser - single shots

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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01/11/2024

𝑺𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒂 𝒓𝒖𝒃𝒊𝒅𝒖𝒎 [adult] (𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘺𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦)
Body length: 2,2 - 3,2 mm
IT - Altica del cardo
Conservation status (IUCN): NOT EVALUATED

08/05/2022 - I always find incredible the amount of species you can find if you have enough time and the right place to scour. Luckily, my father's home is right beside a very small creek that gets water only during the rainiest months, but thanks to the shade of many trees, reeds (mostly the invasive 𝑨𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒐 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒙, unfortunately) and the fact that it flows on deep soil with high clay content, the area stays quite wet all year round - sometimes with actual little temporary ponds - creating the right conditions for all kinds of uncommon plants and little creatures (even amphibians like the sardinian tree frog (𝑯𝒚𝒍𝒂 𝒔𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒂) and tiny crustaceans called seed shrimps (𝑶𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒅𝒂)).

Unfortunately these important habitats are becoming rarer and rarer in Sardinia (and all over the world). My area used to be a fairly big mix of wetlands (some with saline water) and riparian habitat thanks to retrodunal depressions and the floodplain of the Coghinas river, but by the last century almost all of it was replaced by croplands (like our renowned artichokes), wetlands were drained to prevent malaria outbreaks, the course of the river was altered and several dams were built to produce electricity and irrigate the fields.

Continues in the comments section ⬇️

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📷 Shot on α7 III - with 100 mm CA-Dreamer macro lens, NW880s flash and DIY diffuser

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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30/10/2024

Plume moth (tribe 𝑶𝒙𝒚𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒊, maybe genus 𝑪𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒃𝒓𝒖𝒈𝒈𝒉𝒊𝒂 or 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒊𝒂 - if you have the correct ID please leave a comment below)
Wingspan: < 20 mm

30/06/2021 - Anyone here from the plume moth fan club? I am for sure, I love these little freaks. It's one of those cases where the common name perfectly describes the insect's appearance and behaviour: it comes from the fact that their wings consist of several spars covered by plenty of thin bristles, each one resembling a bird's feather; moreover, they're usually quite small and light, so during flight they look like they're slowly swimming through the air, rather than moving swifly in it (don't get me wrong, they can be pretty agile from leaf to leaf).

They're usually dull-coloured (mostly shades of brown and grey) and fold tightly their thin wings in a T or Y shape when resting, so they're pretty hard to spot (an excellent example of 𝙘𝙧𝙮𝙥𝙨𝙞𝙨, or camouflage), except when they're attracted to lamps (I love all the moth memes, btw). Many species look very similar, so this time I couldn't tell the exact ID, but it's to be expected when everything you know comes from just years of observations and basic online research, haha.

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📷 Shot on α7 III - with 100 mm CA-Dreamer macro lens, NW880s flash and DIY diffuser - single shots

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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29/10/2024

𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒂 [adult] (𝘊𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘺𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦)
Body length: 10-17 mm ♂, 12-20 mm ♀
Conservation status (IUCN): LEAST CONCERN

30/06/2021 - Hi, bug lovers! It's been a loooong time, I know. 2 years have passed since the last time I posted here, time has really flown by. I'm not gonna promise that this will be the last time I disappear into thin air for centuries, because I know I can't keep my word (mental health sucks). Anyways, I'm fortunate enough to keep doing what I love - whenever I'm able to - and I'm grateful for that, I don't take anything for granted.
Too many people are still suffering in the world, especially nowadays, so I wanna make sure that as many people as possible can get to know the beauty and preciousness that lies in all living things, even the tiniest, and maybe lift up their spirits a little bit.

I know at least some of my og followers are reading this, so I just wanna say that this post is for YOU. I wanted to celebrate my 100th post with some "new" pictures of my very first little creature here on Swarmie, a beautiful longhorn beetle that's quite common in my hometown.

Continues in the comments section ⬇️

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📷 Shot on α7 III - with 100 mm CA-Dreamer macro lens, NW880s flash and DIY diffuser - single shots

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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11/05/2022

𝑶𝒆𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒂 𝒏𝒐𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒔 ♂[adult] (𝘖𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦)
Body length: 6-11 mm
EN - 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗸-𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗹𝗲
Conservation status (IUCN): NOT EVALUATED

07/05/2022 - Did you see a yellow flower that looked like a daisy or a dandelion? There’s a very good chance that you will find one or more of these beetles on it at this time of year. In my area almost every single flower is filled with these green guys (or some other species belonging to the same genus, like 𝑶. 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒑𝒆𝒔) and they also love ice plants (𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒑𝒐𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒖𝒔 𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒊𝒔), which are very common near beaches here.

They’re quite unusual compared to other beetles: they are very slim, with the head and thorax much thinner than their abdomen. The tips of their 𝙚𝙡𝙮𝙩𝙧𝙖 are very narrow, leaving the wings exposed. When they fly (they do it just to reach other flowers and when they feel threatened) they keep their body almost in a vertical position and the elytra are kept perpendicular to it, while their legs are wide open. Males show a very peculiar trait (that gives them their common name): the 𝙛𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙖 of their rear legs are swollen, while females’ ones are normal-sized. They have 𝙖𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙘 colours to deter predators from eating them: they’re mostly metallic green, but they can have shades of copper, gold, blue (like this one) and purple.

Continues in the comments section ⬇️

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📷 Shot on α7 III - with 100 mm CA-Dreamer macro lens, NW880s flash and DIY diffuser

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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08/05/2022

𝑷𝒉𝒚𝒕𝒐𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒆𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒔 [adult] (𝘊𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘺𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦)
Body length: 6-13 mm
Conservation status (IUCN): NOT EVALUATED

07/05/2022 - Oh boy, did I miss going out and shooting some pictures with my camera? ABSOLUTELY. Yesterday marked my so long waited return to the field and I've been blessed with many little friends roaming around! I didn't remember how heavy my camera setup was and, having done almost four hours of shooting (and contortionism to better compose the photos), I nearly broke my back, haha.

At first glance, this little beetle looked like a specimen of the 𝑨𝒈𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒂 genus, but after approaching it I realized it had quite a stunning grey-turquoise pubescence covering its entire body, which is typical of this species (then I looked it up and I found out that younger specimens have an even brighter colour!). I love longhorn beetles, they're such cooperative subjects and they usually look beautiful! I also managed to get a good portrait, but I wish I had more resolution available on my camera, so that I could crop more without losing a ton of sharpness.

This species feeds on several genera of grasses, mainly 𝑬𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒖𝒎 (like the one in these photos), 𝑪𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒆, 𝑪𝒚𝒏𝒐𝒈𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒎, etc. Larvae eat their roots, then adults climb up to consume leaves and flowers. This beetle is found in most of Europe, North Africa, Near East and Asia Minor.

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📷 Shot on α7 III - with 100 mm CA-Dreamer macro lens, NW800s flash and DIY diffuser

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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07/05/2022

𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒂 𝒋𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒂 ♂[adult] (𝘕𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦)
Wingspan: 36-46 mm (males are slightly smaller than females)
IT - 𝗚𝗶𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗮, 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗲
EN - 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘄 𝗕𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗻
Conservation status (IUCN): LEAST CONCERN

21/05/2021 - It's been a century since I posted my last butterfly on this page, so I thought it was time to reveal my first butterfly pic taken with my camera. It was a late afternoon and there were many butterflies flying around, but I'm still not able to approach them closely without scaring them away - their eyesight is SO sensitive to moving objects! Additionally, studies have shown that members of the 𝘕𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦 family have quite a good hearing, too.

The 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘄 𝗕𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗻 is common here in my hometown, but this was the first male I had seen in a while. There's a pronounced 𝙨𝙚𝙭𝙪𝙖𝙡 𝙙𝙞𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙢 in this species. Males (like the one in these pictures) have a dark brown top side (it gets darker in the innermost parts), with a black eye-like pattern called "𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙢" on the front wings, which has a white spot at its centre and sometimes slight traces of orange around it; the bottom sides show the same pattern surrounded by a large orange patch, and the bottom sides of the rear wings are light brown, with one, two or even three black spots.

Continues in the comments section ⬇️

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📷 Shot on α7 III - with 100 mm CA-Dreamer macro lens, NW800s flash and DIY diffuser

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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04/05/2022

Juvenile lacewing [larva] (𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘺𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦)
Body length: ~ 5 mm
Conservation status (IUCN): ?

10/05/2021 - What would you think if you were looking for insects on the ground and you saw a lump of dirt slowly walking before your eyes? Obviously something was hiding beneath it, but I had never seen anything like that before. I mean, if it didn't move I don't think I would've known that it was some kind of animal.

This type of camouflage is a common technique in the 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘺𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦 family: each segment of the larvae's fragile exoskeleton has two sets of bristles, which are used to hold any kind of debris that the larvae can collect, including 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 of their preys. Yeah, kinda grotesque, isn't it? It could be even more so if you knew that probably the specimen in these pictures carries a dead prey that's infested with some species of fungi!

Larvae of many species of these family are very helpful to humans: they love eating aphids with their curved hollow mandibles, with which they pierce their soft exoskeleton and suck their insides, while secreting digestive saliva. Then they may add them to their collection of trophies, haha. Adult forms are commonly known as 𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨, and contrarily to their juvenile counterparts their diet is more varied: they also like nectar, pollen, honeydew and other small invertebrates.
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📷 Shot on α7 III - with 100 mm CA-Dreamer macro lens, NW800s flash and DIY diffuser

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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02/05/2022

𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒛𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒔 𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒂 ♀ [adult] (𝘗𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦)
Body length: up to 14 mm
Conservation status (IUCN): NOT EVALUATED

28/09/2021 - I bet you thought I was gone forever, huh? Well, not yet, in fact I'm coming back stronger than ever, haha! Jokes aside, life put me through some hardships and I haven't been able to post anything in a while. But now, with growing enthusiasm and new gear (you'll know what I'm talking about very soon), I'm back.

I still don't have any new pictures, but I'm very happy with these ones I shot last summer. I was looking for some insects in the drying grass and I spotted this odd wasp. It was going back and forth in the same area for a relatively long time (I was following it for at least one hour and a half) and I saw this species just once before (it was a dying specimen), so I didn't know anything about it. But after some research I found out that it was a member of the family 𝘗𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦, which is known for its diet based on... spiders. Yes, as the insect in the last post, they are 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙤𝙞𝙙 𝙬𝙖𝙨𝙥𝙨: they catch a prey, paralyze it and put it in a hole in the ground, then they lay an egg inside it, so that the newborn larvae can have a tasteful meal right away! Momma wasp is truly a reckless hunter: she just doesn't care and kills spiders much larger than her own body, like 𝑨𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒊. Continues in the comments section ⬇️
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📷 Shot on α7 III - with 100 mm CA-Dreamer macro lens, NW800s flash and DIY diffuser

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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29/09/2021

𝑳𝒆𝒖𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒅𝒂 ♀ [adult] (𝘓𝘦𝘶𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘦)
Body length: 6-7 mm (males), 8-9 mm (females)
Conservation status (IUCN): NOT EVALUATED

28/09/2021 - Here it is! Finally, after a couple of months, I took my α7 III and I managed to shoot some very interesting photos. Here in Sardinia the weather is still quite hot, so there are a lot of little animals roaming around. Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I found two uncommon species of parasitoid wasps, one of which is this tiny, very odd creature (maybe you'll see the other one in the next posts 😉).

At first glance, when it was flying around, it looked like a specimen of tube wasp of the 𝑨𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒖𝒔 genus, but then it landed on a dry plant and, as I got closer, I saw its unique traits. Its very enlarged yellow 𝙛𝙚𝙢𝙪𝙧𝙨 were the first things I noticed, along with its short antennae, but when I checked the photos I was truly amazed by some very odd details, like the big spikes on the undersides of the aforementioned femurs (𝗽𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝟱), the reddish patches that connect the yellow parts, the median line on each abdominal segment and, last but not least, the extremely odd 𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙤𝙧, which is bent upwards and lays on the top of the first two 𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙨 (you can barely see it in the rear view) - the name "𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒅𝒂" ("short tail" in latin) comes from the fact that its ovipositor is a lot shorter than the one of other wasps of the same family. (Continues in the comments section ⬇️)

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📷 Shot on - with HD 100 mm macro lens

⚠️ All photos are taken by me. Don't crop or republish them without permission and/or without tagging me.

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