Assassin bug?
Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 8:07 AM
Hi bugman,
Think its an assassin bug but wondering if you can get it down to species or family level. Found it near a shore location (near the sea) on an island in Singapore. It was fast moving and I didn’t want to provoke it lest it bite me with that stinger. Singapore is south of Malaysia, located on the equator. Also caught one today, but photo is unavailable yet. Do you have any links on tropical assassin bug websites? Thanks!
Cheers, mins
Singapore
Unknown Assassin Bug from Singapore
Hi mins,
This is an Assassin Bug, but it is past midnight and we have an early call tomorrow. We cannot take the time to identify the species tonight, but perhaps one of our readers will provide a comment or write back to us with an identification.
Giant Wasp
Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 6:42 AM
Location: South Africa, Western Cape, Near Malmesbury (Swartland, West Coast)
Weather: 38 Degrees Celsius in the shade, 44 in the sun. No wind. No clouds.
Looks: It has the typical wasp body, only much more bulky as opposed to slender, its really HUGE! Probably 5-6cm when straight. The whole body is black. The tentacles (or radars, what ever it might be called) are dark orange about 1mm thick and spirals once. The eyes are about 3mm wide. The wings and legs are also the same dark orange as the tentacles. The stinger, when pushed out fully is probably about 8mm long, very thin and curves slightly (it looks as it might be a very painful sting). The wasp did seem kind of clumsy. It made a lot of noise when flying. Wingspan, probably about 3.5-4cm. That’s it, I think.
I’ve lived in the western cape and have never seen a WASP come even close to the size of this big boy.
Mr?
South Africa, West Coast
probably Tarantula Hawk from South Africa
Dear Mr?
This is a Spider Wasp in the family Pompilidae. It bears an uncanny resemblance to a North American Tarantula Hawk in the genus Pepsis. According to Wikipedia, there are Tarantula Hawks in Africa. The sting of a female Tarantula Hawk is reported to be one of the most painful of all wasp stings.
Geometrid moth from Australia
Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 10:38 PM
Hi Daniel,
I thought you might be interested in the photo I took this week of a moth that had flattened itself so well against a tree trunk, that at first I thought it was a strange pattern on the bark. I have identified it as Cypsiphona ocultaria. I wish I could have seen its underside, which apparently white, marked with black and crimson. See:
http://www-staff.socs.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/geom/ocult.html
http://www.ento.csiro.au/aicn/name_s/b_1187.htm
Grev
East Coast Australia
Spanworm Moth from Australia
Hi Grev,
Thanks for sending your lovely Spanworm Moth or Inchworm Moth from the family Geometridae. We were unable to get the csiro link to work.
Mating unknown Longicorns
Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Hi guys.
Hope the book is progressing well. I found this pair today while photographing a moth. I have not seen such brightly coloured longicorns before and hopefully someone can ID these for me. Hope you like this buglove shot
aussietrev
Queensland, Australia
Mating Soldier Beetles
Hi Trevor,
We are still courting the editor and publisher and the book is still in the concept phase. These are not Longicorns, but Soldier Beetles in the family Cantharidae. On the Brisbane Insect site, they resemble the Tricolor Soldier Beetles, Chauliognathus tricolor.
unknown longhorns not on wtb!
Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 7:15 AM
Hi,
I have two unidentified longhorn beetles that I haven’t seen on What’s That Bug before. I looked through all the beetle pages and didn’t see either of them there. The first one is a little grayish-brown longhorn that is about 1 cm long. It was found in central Oklahoma. I have found several of these this year, ranging from brown to grey, and all of them have been found under loose boards. The second is about an inch long and is orange and black. This one was found in the Arizona desert five or six years ago. I appreciate any help you can provide.
Josh Kouri
Flat Faced Longhorn
Hi Josh,
We have been scouring BugGuide to try to provide you with speculations on your identifications, and then we will consult with experts to see if our identifications are correct. We believe your Oklahoma specimen may be Flat Faced Longhorn with no common name, Ecyrus dasycerus. Images on BugGuide look quite close. BugGuide has this information: “Size 4 to 10 mm. Identification ‘Variable in size, and darker and lighter variants occur, but the combination of body shape and the dark, inverted arc-like marking at the elytral base is distinctive (though the mark is sometimes faint).’(1) Season ‘Flight: April-August in Eastern North America.’(1) Food variety of hardwoods, esp. oak. Remarks ‘Attracted to UV lights.’ ” The photo on your finger indicates the small size of the specimen which matches the description on BugGuide
Flat Faced Longhorn
We haven’t had any luck identifying your Arizona specimen, and we are now running late for the day. Hopefully Eric Eaton can provide an ID or some assistance.
Long Jawed Longhorn
Update: From Eric Eaton
Mon, 2 Mar 2009 09:32:27 -0800 (PST)
Happy birthday, Daniel!
The Arizona longhorned beetle is a specimen of Trachyderes mandibularis. One of the larger and more colorful species down here….The specimen in the image is a female. Males have much longer antennae, and sometimes exaggerrated jaws.
Those little flat-faced longhorns are really tough to ID, so I’m not even going to venture a guess on genus and species….
Eric
Thanks for the greeting Eric, and thanks for the identification of the Long Jawed Longhorn.
Chilean bug with very large mandibles
Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 5:03 AM
Chilean bug with very large mandibles
A friend in Chile took this photo of a bug from his lake house. That’s pretty much all the information I have I’m sorry.
Cameron
Chile
Chilean Stag Beetle
Hi Cameron,
We are quite impressed with this spectacular Stag Beetle. We tried a websearch and believe this is a Chilean Sag Beetle, Chiasignathus granti . You may see a mounted specimen on the God of Insects web site where male specimens like the one in your photo fetch $50 to $75. Another website identifies this species as Darwin’s Beetle. All of the images we were able to locate online were mounted specimens, so we are very proud to perhaps have the only image of a living specimen of a male Chilean Stag Beetle available on the internet.
Love Bug
Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 6:22 PM
While visiting Andros Island, Bahamas, I snapped a photo of what my friend called “Love Bugs”. That must be a common name. What is their true name?
BMZ
Fresh Creek, Andros Island, Bahamas
St. Andrew's Cotton Stainers
Dear BMZ,
We have never heard of the St. Andrew’s Cotton Stainer, Dysdercus andreae , referred to as a Love Bug. While there are some mating pairs in this large aggregation, procreation is not the primary reason many True Bugs, including the St. Andrew’s Cotton Stainer, form aggregations. According to BugGuide, the species is found in Florida and the West Indies.
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