Here are a few pictures from the insect festival at Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas, CA. The collections were amazing - some of the displays had great colors and variety of insects! There were also a few large live insects, spiders, and other arthropods. I thought I overheard the woman talking about this giant stick insect say that they were becoming an invasive species here, but somehow I doubt it...I can't find any information about it online at any rate.
The spider-like creature is a sun spider, or Solpugid. The beetle collections mostly contain Cerambycidae and Scarabaeidae. The millipede isn't an insect, but I still think they're neat. The blue wasp is a member of Sphecidae, thread-waisted wasps. Blue wasps are among my favorite of Hymenoptera - they just look so cool. Anyway, hopefully one day I will be able to display a collection nearly as impressive.
I think I've also heard about them becoming invasive, but I don't know what niche they're displacing ...
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