Ground Assassin Bug from Australia

bugman

December 13th, 2008 at 11:10 pm

Tags

Orange/Black Beetle/Hornet ? NSW
Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 3:57 PM
My husband found this bug under his sleeve driving it’s spike into his arm yesterday. It got 4 stings in before it wore a size 9 dunlop volley.
Apparently it packed quite a punch, his arm still red/swollen/itchy 24hrs later. Just curious what bug this is? Doesn’t appear to have wings! Looks like a cross between a hornet & a beetle type bug.
Newcastle NSW Australia
Shell
Newcastle NSW Australia

Ground Assassin Bug

Hi Shell,
A little bit of research revealed that this is a female Ground Assassin Bug, Ectomocoris decoratus, which we located on the Geocities Website of Brisbane Insects. Males of the species are winged and fly while the females are winged. Interestingly, we found some of the same photos and illustrations on a Brisbane Insects website with a different URL, but the species was listed as Ectomocoris patricius. We also found a PDF online that states: “Several other assassin bugs bite people in Queensland. … Ectomocoris decoratus, a fast-moving species with winged males and wingless females, is strikingly coloured in blue-black and orange. It occurs under loose bark and may be encountered when gardening or clearing vegetation. Because of its colour and speed, victims of this assassin bug often believe they were stung by a wasp.” We are not exactly sure what a size 9 dunlop volley is, but it sound like it contributed to the squashing evident in your photos. Assassin Bugs, except for a few blood sucking species, are thought of as beneficial predators, so we feel compelled to also tag your posting under Unnecessary Carnage.

Ground Assassin Bug

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Comments 1

kipouros wrote:
Unnecessary? Now that’s being a bit harsh isn’t it? I don’t like to kill unnecessarily (my housemate thinks I’m nuts when I scoop up scorpions and release them into the garden) but if I was getting bitten by something that felt like a wasp, I think I’d do just about anything to be rid of it! Perhaps an “2nd-degree bugslaughter” subcategory? I love your site!
Posted 21 Apr 2009 at 2:08 pm ¶