Q: What were you thinking, trying to do both wildlife photography and macro photography at the same time?
A: I am a masochist.

Q: Is it cheating that the grasshopper photo is 1) from 2007 2) from a point-and-shoot?
A: Yeah, but I wanted another bug photo I actually liked and thought looked good. Sorry.

A collection of very cool insects I've found while visiting my aunt in Missoula, Montana. The top two (probably borer-) beetles are from Grant Creek Canyon. The moth and the dragonfly are from Maclay Flat Nature Trail. All photos taken 27 July 2022.

I even donated some blood to the cause of getting the latter two pictures... and so did @nex3. Several mosquito bites each.

I will update this post when I figure out what the species are! I am currently several specialist websites deep in trying to identify the dragonfly and so far I haven't had any luck... if any of you have an idea, please let me know!

I know a number of entomologists have joined recently (hello bug-likers you are cool), and I'm hoping y'all might have leads on what I'm looking at or further resources to point me to. insect/arthropod taxonomy is not my skill