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Mating Wheel Bugs
I got some great pictures this morning of mating Wheel Bugs, although I’ve never seen an orange one before. Do they change their color for "mating season"? Or is this just a different type of Wheel Bug than the usual black Wheel Bug that I always see around here?: I will also attach the pictures in case you have trouble seeing them in this e-mail. Thanks!
Laura Frazier

Hi Laura,
The orange Wheel Bug in your photo is newly metamorphosed and has not darkened to its normal adult coloration yet. Its “partner” is really the discarded exoskeleton. Thanks for sending in your photo of Wheel Bug metamorphosis. It is rare that we get 11 views at almost 1M per image to choose from. To be honest, we just opened three and chose the best, knowing full well there might have been a gem we missed.

Related Posts

1. Metamorphosis of a Wheel Bug (August 7, 2004)
2. Wheel Bug (October 10, 2006)
3. Wheel Bug (August 17, 2008)
4. Mating Wheel Bugs (October 13, 2008)
5. Wheel Bug Metamorphosis (August 9, 2009)