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Hi,
I live in Melbourne, Australia. We were tidying up our backyard and came across a bunch of these bugs, there are about 20 of them living together and all of them seem to be joined at the bottom! From what I can tell after looking through your site, they are Hemipterans. As they crawl, they remain attached and one is always walking backwards! Are they in a constant state of mating?? Will they stay this way all the time? I have been watching them for 5 days now and they have remained in this position. They have beautiful colours under their bellies and seem to have a great sense of knowing when I am near them as they run the other way (always joined at the bum!)
Ally

Hi Ally,
We can narrow the identification to Seed Bugs, either in the family Lygaeidae or Largidae, but sadly, the GeoCities site has failed to provide us with an exact identification of your very distinctive Seed Bugs. We also don’t know how long they will stay attached. Perhaps one of our readers will have better internet luck than we are having.

Correction: (11/11/2007)
Thanks for the reply Daniel. I managed to look around myself and finally found a local bug person who told me these little guys are called Harlequin Bugs! He told me to do a google search for ” Dindymus versicolor ” which I suppose its it’s proper name…Seems these guys are pests: “Dindymus versicolor (Herrich-Schaeffer) is a minor pest of soft fruit orchards, Market gardens and home gardens in southeastern Australia and Tasmania (French 1891; French 1933; McKeown 1942; Evans 1943), but the nymphs have not been Described even though they contribute directly to the pest status of this species. Further, Dindymus versicolor, as the major representative of the family Pyrrhocoridae In southeastern Australia (Tillyard 1926), has been neglected compared to the family’s Northern Australian representative, Dysdercus sidae Montrouzier, once considered To pose a serious threat to the cotton industry (Froggatt 1923; Gurney 1924; Ballard And Evans 1928).” BUT, I am still searching on information WHY these guys are “stuck” together!!! It’s really, err, bugging me!! LOL Thanks again!
Ally

Hi Ally,
Thanks for the correction. We had also considered the family Pyrrhocoridae, known as Red Bugs or Cotton Stainers, as a possibility. Sorry we didn’t include it in our original guess.

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