Large Milkweed Bug

bugman

September 20th, 2006 at 12:00 am

Categories

True Bugs

what bug is this
We saw this bug in our back yard. A friend said it was a soldier beetle but none of the pictures online look like this striking fellow. Many thanks for your help.
Dan Vera
Washington, DC

Hi Dan,
Unless you don’t read your email, you already know this answer. Someone sent us a similar photo with a similar camera marker and began a letter along the lines of “My friend found …” That indicates that you emailed your find to at least one person who found us before you. We responded that this is a Large Milkweed Bug. The internet is a wonderful tool, but it can get annoying when one consideres the speed with which things can travel around the world. Last month, about every third letter we opened came from some poor sad web surfer wanting the identity of a caterpillar in a video posted on a website, which was later posted on other websites and blogs, and soon our mailbox was clogged with requests. This is the modern equivalent of the hideousness of the chain letter. We wore out our delete key.