Below is a compilation of a few tiny creatures I’ve come across in the last week or so. All photos were taken using a macro lens on my iPhone.

This is a carpet beetle in the genus Anthrenus, likely Anthrenus verbasci, in the flower of a China girl holly. Adults of this species eat pollen, so it’s a logical place to find this one. For those unfamiliar with the scale of holly flowers, this beetle is tiny – only a couple millimeters long.

Below is a click beetle in the genus Agriotes, potentially Agriotes oblogicollis, also on the China girl holly. Click beetles are so named due to their unique “click” mechanism. A spine on their thorax can be snapped into a corresponding notch, producing a loud clicking noise. This may deter predators, but due to the action’s capacity to also launch the beetle like a mini catapult, it can also be useful when the beetle is on its back and needs to right itself.

Here’s an Ulher’s wood cockroach (Parcoblatta uhleriana) making its way through the grass. Unlike its despised urban cousin, Ulher’s wood cockroach prefers dense deciduous forests with ample leaf litter, and eats forest floor treats like mushrooms and moss.

I found this little blackberry looper moth (Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria) in my house (and carefully placed it back outside). It is a relatively small moth, only about the width of my finger. As the name suggests, its larvae feed on the fruit and flowers of blackberries and other Rubus species.

This is a small leaf beetle in the genus Paria crawling on a samara from a red maple. Unfortunately, without being able to pin this down to species, it’s hard to know much about it since most leaf beetles are specialists, only feeding on a single plant or a group of closely related plants.

Finally, here’s an underside view of an orchard orbweaver spider (Leucauge venusta). Because these tiny spiders build their webs relatively close to the ground and hang upside down from the threads, getting a decent photo of their back side is hard. While most do have a neon spot on the underside of their abdomen, the size and color of that feature can be variable.

What kinds of mini beasts have you encountered lately?