Giant Mesquite Bug

bugman

July 8th, 2007 at 12:00 am

Categories

True Bugs

giant mesquite bug
Hi, I just have to say I love your website!!! I sent in 2 photos of a colorful ‘beetle’ a few days ago, and have been eagerly awaiting your response. Someone told me the bug I found was a ‘Walapai Tiger’ -which freaked me out because I read it can make you really sick. (and we let it crawl all over our hands!) However, as I only looked on your pages from 2007, I was not able to correctly ID my ‘beetle’. I looked through some of your older pages and found out that my ‘beetle’ was actually a giant mesquite bug. I am much relieved to find out its not dangerous. The pictures I sent had my dog, Layne’s, nose in them and I was more concerned for him than myself. I would like to urge readers to look in your archives as some of these insects emerge seasonally (like the Palo Verde Beetle) and there may be info from years past. Thanks for such a wealth of knowledge and a bunch of nice photos! Kudos!!!
Jen

Thank you so much Jen,
First, we must appologize for not answering you sooner, but people don’t realize how long it takes to do a single posting to our site. You original letter and image was on our back burner, but it seems there has been a backlog on the front burners as well due to summertime being peak insect season. We want to thank you for your praise and suggestions as well as for using our archives since that is the reason they are there. Your point about seasonal occurrances is totally accurate. Many casual visitors to our site do not get past the “Ask WTB?” link when the object of their desire is a scroll down the homepage. We have answered countless requests this month for Cicada Killer identifications despite it being the featured Bug of the Month. In this world of instant gratification, many people have gotten lazy. They also don’t realize that here at What’s That Bug? we are artists, not trained entomologists. We derive all of our responses by doing internet research. We are not getting paid and we do not have the time nor energy to research every blurry photo or vague description that is sent our way. Many a letter just goes directly to the trash icon. Again, we had plans to post your lovely image of an adult Giant Mesquite Bug because most of the images of the species Thasus acutangulus are of immature nymphs with their bold coloration. The wings of the adult hide the colorful patterns on the abdomen.