Who am I?
Location: San Diego, CA
September 2, 2010 1:22 am
So, we found these bugs everywhere on the new vegetables that we planted. It is some sort of chinese green vegetable. ( not sure which one, as my kids dumped all the seeds in the dirt =). There are tons of them on the ground near the sprouts and all up in them. What are they, and from the picture it looks like they are reproducing. So how do i get rid of them if they are harmful to my new plants?
Jeanine
Mating Painted Bugs
Hi Jeanine,
In our opinion, the African Painted Bugs, Bagrada hilaris, which were first reported in California just two years ago, will go down in history as being one of the most problematic Exotic Invasive agricultural pests due to their fondness for sucking the juices from plants in the cabbage family. We first noticed hoards of them on our collard greens last summer. It seems mating is the main objective of every adult, and mating pairs like the ones in your photograph seem to be more common than single individuals.
Io Moth Caterpillar (Automeris Io)?
Location: Jacksonville FL
September 1, 2010 7:10 pm
Found several of these feasting heartily on one of our Crape Myrtle trees. They are pretty large. We live in Jacksonville FL. I wanted to share this photo with you all and also verify if my research is correct 
Dan
Io Moth Caterpillars
Hi Dan,
Your research is correct and these are Io Moth Caterpillars. We trust you exercised caution in handling them because the spines can sting.
decade old nightmare. Maggots that ate live kittens/bunnies?
September 2, 2010 1:57 am
Dear Man of Bugs,
First and foremost I apologize I have no photos, but this horrific season took place a good ten years ago, and photographic evidence would only serve to scar you the way I am now irrevocably scarred.
When I was younger, I lived in Kentucky. We had a rabbit farm. Come warm weather, all the rabbits had their precious babies and the barn cats had kittens. One day I went to look at these precious darling bunnies, these tiny miracles, and when I pulled back the fur in the nesting box… they were basically mutilated. I very clearly remember the writhing maggots (white) and the lesions on LIVING creatures. I found the same waking nightmare on the barn kittens. The common link was all the animals were too yong to be mobile, and seemed to have pus in their eyes/diarrhea, and seemed thin. I do not know if this is because the gates of hell unleashed meat eating maggots on them, or they got these parasites because they were ill. I am still very traumatized by this, partly because nobody here up north believes me or can relate. I spent the rest of that summer guarding my dog’s litter of puppies, keeping them dry, warm, clean, and healthy. I truly believe my anxiety disorder started w
ith these unspeakable terrors. I learned, Bug Man, that something that looks as harmless as a grain of rice can devour your flesh, and really quickly. Life suddenly wasn’t so carefree anymore. Kittens can literally be stripped of their hides and life doesn’t care. Chilling, for a twelve year old.
I know I wasn’t delusional (well, at least back then.) Did I manage to fall through a rip in time and space and I was actually IN hell, or do these things writhe the earth?
Thanks very much for your time.
Susan
Dear Susan,
Without a photograph, our response is purely speculative. There is a family of Flies known as Bot Flies whose larvae are endoparasites on mammals, but your encounter was probably with the Maggots of Blow Flies. Here is a National Geographic story on the benefits of treating wounds with maggots. As your letter indicates, sickly newborn creatures might be infested with maggots and not survive the encounter.
Centipede-like bug with pincers?
Location: Utah
September 2, 2010 1:26 am
I have been searching long and hard for a site where I could ask about a bug I found, so here goes!
Unfortunately I don’t have a picture (but I drew it? haha) of it since I was too frightened to catch it and I didnt have my camera with me at the time.
It was also very dark when I found it and I was in a river… I was swimming around, looking for tadpoles and frogs. And then much to my horror I shined my flashlight upon something that was definitely neither of those.
I can’t remember exactly what it looked like but it had a very long centipede-like body with a lot of legs like one. I think it was white and black (but it was nighttime, and I wasn’t really paying attention to its color for obvious reasons) and it was coming out from under a rock. So it obviously lives in the water. And it had very sharp needle-like pincers that curved in and looked like it could chop your finger off if it got close enough.
I’ve looked everywhere for one. All over the internet, and I can’t seem to find anything that looks even remotely close to it. I really wish I had taken a picture of it! Does something like this exist? Or is it some freak science-experiment gone wrong?
I’m sorry, I wish I had a better explanation of what it looked like (and a better drawing!). The next day I went back hoping to catch it but I didn’t see it anywhere. Of course it only shows up when it isn’t wanted.
Signature: Maddie
Possibly a Hellgrammite
Hi Maddie,
We were quite certain based on your drawing and your letter that you had an encounter with a Hellgrammite, the aquatic larva of a Dobsonfly, but we began to question that theory when we realized your sighting was in Utah. The commonly encountered Eastern Dobsonfly does not range to Utah, but there are three other species that occur in western states. According to BugGuide:
“The only eastern species is Eastern Dobsonfly, Corydalus cornutus. Three other species apparently have very limited distribution in North America:
Corydalus luteus – South Texas
Corydalus texana – SW US west of the Rocky Mountains
Corydalus bidenticulatus – Arizona
Genus is restricted to the New World–other species in Central and South America.”
We were unable to locate an image of a Western Dobsonfly, Corydalus texana, but a web search did lead us to a trout fishing page with a photograph of a Dobsonfly and a nice description. The God of Insects website also has some information. We are posting your letter with an image of the Hellgrammite of an Eastern Dobsonfly as we imagine the western counterpart must look very similar.
Hellgrammite
Interestingly, we did notice that one of our earlier postings is from Colorado, which would indicate there is a strong possibility that image is of Corydalus texana.
Louse fly
September 1, 2010 11:13 pm
my wife brought home a dead bird (here in the Catskill Mtns of NY). While examining it, a flat fly -which had a habit of running through the birds plumage- landed on me and went down my shirt. It appears to have bitten me as well on my back.
Q:do I need to worry about transmission of disease w/this species of fly?
Signature: alex mallon
Louse Fly
Dear Alex,
This is a great question and we need to research it, but we can tell you that Flies are probably the group of insects most likely to transmit a disease to a human. The number of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and flies is extensive. With that said, we have not heard of a Louse Fly transmitting a disease to humans. We have taken the liberty of posting an old photo of a Louse Fly sent to us from England to accompany your question.
Blue-margined Ground Beetle
Mating Blue Margined Ground Beetles
Blue-margined Ground Beetle
Location: Somervell County, Texas
September 1, 2010 2:11 pm
I took these two pictures of what I believe are Blue-margined Ground Beetles. I assume the one picture is a shot of them mating? While I was taking pics, my 7yo gently blew on them and they popped apart and walked their separate ways.
I simply wanted to contribute the photos if you need them. We are in Somervell County, Texas and these were spotted in August, 2010.
Signature: Amber
Post-Coital Blue Margined Ground Beetle
Dear Amber,
Out of respect for our younger readers, we do not use cuss words on our website, however we are far from prudish. This photo of presumably courting Ground Beetles has to be one of the most provocative Bug Love images we have ever seen. We compared your images to Blue Margined Ground Beetles (the photographer’s name rather than an accepted common name) that are posted to BugGuide, and we have to agree with you. There may be a coleopterist out there that will correct us, or a faithful and very beetle knowledgeable reader like mardikavana who may set us straight, but we believe your beetle looks like Pasimachus depressus.
Flying Insect
Taylor, MI (southeast MI)
August 31, 2010 10:40 pm
This is probably a pretty boring insect, but what in the world is this. They were hanging out by the hundreds on a window of a friend of mine?
cgp
Midges
Hi cgp,
We are not going to try to pretend we know more than what our limited understanding includes when it comes to insect identification. These are members of the order Diptera which includes flies and mosquitoes. They are some small gnats or midges, but we have no idea what family much less genus or species. That would take a true expert in the area, known as a dipterist. We can tell you that this is a pair, and the individual with the arrow pointing at him is the male. Many male flies have highly developed antennae which are sensory organs, presumably to help them locate females. Hopefully one of our readers will be able to provide a more specific identification. We just noticed your email contained a second contact with additional information.
Apparently this is a chiromid midge.
– cgp
Dear cgp,
Thanks for providing us with a followup that supports our original vague identification. We are linking to the BugGuide information page on the Chironomid Midges in the family Chironomidae.
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