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Alex Wild

I swear this is a real beetle and not AI generated.

(Omophron americanum, the American round sand beetle. Texas)

#Carabidae #Omophron #Insects #Beetle

Photograph of a compact, round, shiny orange and metallic green beetle in oblique front/side view with bulging eyes and snippy little jaws, standing on gray rock.
11 comments
Jeff Gilmour šŸš€

@alexwild Very cool. And the contrast with the background is excellent.

Alex Wild

@CaptManiac Thanks for noticing the background, I deliberately chose a piece of native blue limestone for this

llewelly

@alexwild A beautiful beetle!

But - what is with the tiny legs (or leg-like appendages??) beneath its mandibles? Prey item, or something else?

llewelly

@alexwild
now I'm thinking they're actually the beetle's other two pairs of oral appendages?

myrmepropagandist

@alexwild

Now Iā€™m imagining a beetle that evolved to look AI generated so people would stop looking for it in the wild.

Brie Mmm
Beetles come in so many shapes and colours, that beetle configuration space is fully exhausted, so every possible beetle does exist somewhere. Including what LLMs hallucinate as beetles.
datarama

@alexwild I am not sure I can explain exactly why, but it doesn't *look* AI-generated either.

raccoona_nongrata

@alexwild

"The creator, if one exists, has an inordinate fondness for beetles"

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