There have been several articles floating (or shall we say flying?) around the web lately about the myriad of tiny creatures that inhabit our planet, and which among them might be the most attractive of their species. (See the New York Times, for example). Being that we have a rather large number of these fruitful critters in our collection, we felt we should get in on the action. From beetles to butterflies, here are some of our favorite macro photographs of bugs. We must warn you, however: this may make it a bit harder to slam the book down the next time you come across one of our multi-legged (or winged) friends.

Detailed view of Phiddipus Regius jumping spider | tomatito

Closeup of a bee with pollen on its head | Joseph Calev

Macro butterfly | Saruri

Black Swallowtail larve on a celery stem | Tyler Fox

Human fingers holding a beetle closeup | Korionov

Dragonfly | Hendroh

Big fly | Karen Grigoryan

Pyrrhosoma Nymphula | tomatito

To explore our full lightbox of 70 amazing insect macros, click here. And while you’re at it, go ahead and like us on Facebook, tweet at us, and share these photos by using the social sharing buttons above.

Meagan