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Computer Bug
Hi there ! Today a bit of a dust-ball rolled out from a crevice in a computer I am working on… and it turns out it’s alive! Location is North Central Nebraska, quite arrid of late though not the drought we had last year thank God!
I spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME looking hither and yon only to finally find your site which at the very least will Try to tell you what something is instead of just ask you silly questions until they mechanically pronounce it a ‘bug’. I am investing great faith in you, I took these on a wide ruled dayplanner and in some cases there is a standard sized pen in the background for size, against a ruler it measures approx .3 cm and has six legs. It really does look like dust moving around on the paper, excepting it’s long back legs and ultra-fine antennea – which seem to have a thicker base and then whip out, not segmented. The middle and forelegs are quite short and the thorax (if that’s what it is) is very small, or the thorax is just an extension of what appears to be a very small abdomen. Coloration seems to be mostly even with no markings underneath that I’ve been able to discern (it does NOT like upsidedown It ambulates on all six legs somewhat like a grasshopper walking, yet it has not demonstrated a jump nor even any burst of speed, heck at one point I gently pushed it backward with a pencap and it just stood it’s ground heh heh. So… any ideas? I’d LOVE to know what it is… so far all I’ve ruled out is Arachanid … but since it may very well be larval I cannot dismiss winged critter of indeterminate type LOL.
Looking forward to your response,
Blessings
Michael

Hi Michael,
I absolutely love your letter. We pride ourselves on our attempts, sometimes feeble, at accuracy, but more on our user friendly format. You have a Masked Hunter, Reduvius personatus, a type of Assassin Bug from the family Reduviidae. These are True Bugs and they they are predatory. They are often found indoors where they prey on Bedbugs, but they are fully capable of delivering a painful bite to people who carelessly handle them. They get their common name because they have the habit of accumulating lint on their heads and bodies, and hence become masked.

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