bee like insect
Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 1:13 PM
Found him sitting on the washing line. Sat there with his wings buzzing for ages. Smaller than a bee. paler in colour. Saw him on the 31st March. ….
Jill Cotter
London, east finchley
Greater Bee Fly
Hi Jill,
What a noble pose you have captured on this Greater Bee Fly. This species has an extensive range that includes most of North America and Europe.
What is this?
Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 6:54 AM
We have recently seen these unusual (to us anyway!) flying insects and would love to know what they are. We spotted them mating on the grass outside our house one day a few weeks ago (mid march), and then saw quite a few of them flying around for the next couple of weeks. Then in the last few days we have seen their corpses lying around. Unfortunately the picture is not too clear as it was taken with the cellphone camera. The closest thing I have been able to find is a polka dot wasp moth. They have a shiny turquoise abdomen wih 3 distinct shiny orange rings around the middle and one around the top of the abdomen. The wings are black and have creamy coloured spots on them. I would love to know what they are!
Trish
Agadir, Morocco
Mating Unknown Wasp Moths from Morocco
Beautiful Bug
Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 8:20 AM
I spotted this beautiful flying insect around middle of march, and have no idea what it is! I noticed they were mating around this time,and then saw quite a few flying around for the next couple of weeks, then they started dying. I am not a bug person at all, but would love to know what this beautiful creature is. Thanks.
Trish
Agadir, Morocco
Unknown Wasp Moth from Morocco
Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 1:33 AM
Is this a Wasp Moth in Morocco?
Trish
Agadir, Morocco
Unknown Wasp Moth from Morocco
Hi Trish,
Thanks for your perseverance in sending us three emails. We are happy your subsequent images are clear and focused. Yes, this is a Wasp Moth. Moths in two different families, Sesiidae and Arctiidae (Tribe Euchromiini) are known as Wasp Moths since they mimic the stinging insects, but are themselves harmless. Your moth is in the tribe Euchromiini and we will check with our friend Julian Donahue, an expert in the Arctiidae, to see if he recognizes the species.
Update: Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:46:25 -0400
It’s a ctenuchine arctiid in the genus Euchromia, but I’ll have to see if I can get a species name at the Museum tomorrow. Not illustrated in any reference I have at hand.
Julian
Update: Tue, 07 Apr 2009
Daniel,
Are you sure it is from “Morocco”?? I checked some references at the Museum yesterday, and there is nothing in Africa or the western Palearctic that matches it.
There are, however, some species from the Moluccas (Indonesia) that are similar, such as Euchromia walkeri from Ternate (Moluccas), and the widespread E. creusa from northern Australia, Fiji, New Guinea, Moluccas, Celebes, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, Palau, and elsewhere in the western Pacific.
Furthermore, since it appears to be a female, it doesn’t exactly match any figures I saw (there is often great sexual dimorphism in this group). Send the specimen and I can perhaps come up with a better name.
Julian
Black spiny bug killed my tomato plant Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Dear bugman,
These black spiny creatures annihilated our tomato plant. Swarmed all over it. We’re kinda lazy gardeners, so we just let them. They also killed the wooden bunny that was resting on the tomato plant. Poor bunny never had a chance.
Josh
Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA
Keeled Treehopper Nymphs
Treehoppers
Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 11:11 PM
Woops! I should have googled first. I realize that I just sent you pictures of Keeled Treehoppers. “Black spiny tomato pest” did the trick. Thanks anyway.
Josh
LA
Hi Josh,
We are happy to see you correctly identified your Treehopper nymphs. We find them to be most troublesome on our tomato plants in the fall and winter. We have noticed huge colonies of the spiny numphs on the woody stems of our plants in the fall, and we rarely have issues with Treehoppers on our young tomato plants. This pestiferous species is also a problem with peppers, eggplant and other solanaceous plants.
Update
May 17, 2011
Hi Daniel,
So I’ve had worse infestations, but the treehoppers have definitely moved in on a pair of tomato plants that wintered over. I’ve been going at them by hand and with hose blasts but I think the soap/oil/hot pepper/garlic attempts are next.
I also advise, with gloves, pulling off any leaves that are dead or yellowing and working to separate the tomato branches which might require additional infrastructure. These bad guys tend to congregate where leaves overlap and they can vampire the plant without fear of predators. I am hoping that the work I did to “trellis” the plants this evening will make for easier hunting. I did snap off a few branches accidentally, but I can live with that.
I have another suggestion as well:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2007/03/02/immature-keel-backed-treehopper/
Great pic. I think you should also post a pic of a ladybug nymph on the same page… someone in their first season growing, after seeing the pic above, is unlikely to know they’re looking at a ladybug, which might be on the same plant. Compare the keel-backed nymph on your site to:
http://www.pbase.com/image/97913123
I’m sure you have some ladybug nymph pics to pull from too, but thought this one really makes the case. It suggests an evolutionary disguise on the treehopper’s part.
Cheers,
David Wolfberg
Thanks for the idea David. We imagine many of our readers might confuse the larvae of the Lady Beetle with the noxious Keeled Treehopper Nymphs that proliferate on tomatoes and related plants, especially during the winter months. We find that they are most plentiful on plants that we allow to continue to grow through the winter, and we never have such problems on new seedling tomato plants. We are placing your comment on this posting since you don’t have a photo to accompany your comment.
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2009/04/05/keeled-treehopper-nymphs/
Orb Weaver from Dominican Republic
Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Found this spider in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Looks like some type of Orb Weaver, but not sure. It was sitting right in the middle of the web.
To Matt
Dominican Republic
Orb Weaver
Dear To Matt,
You are correct. This is an Argiope Orb Weaver, but we are not certain of the species.
A skeeter hawk 4 U
Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 7:37 PM
Hey Dan,
What do you call this creature when it is not flying ? — A ‘dragon’ ?
Ferd Hall
Common Whitetail
Hi Ferd,
Since Dragonfly is not two words, it would not be likely that anyone would call a stationary specimen a dragon, but we do like the colloquialism Skeeter Hawk since Dragonflies prey on Mosquitoes. Some people call Crane Flies by the name Mosquito Hawk, but that is not at all accurate. Though Dragonfly identification is something we prefer to leave to those more proficient with the order Odonata, we are relatively certain your distinctively marked specimen is a male Common Whitetail, Plathemis lydia. It sure is a stunning photograph and it matches an image posted on BugGuide. Since you are a longtime reader of our site, you did not use our new form, and your query did not contain a sighting location, a new feature that we really like since our site migration last September.
Large unidentified beetle
Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 4:58 PM
Please help me identify this insect. I was standing on my porch @ 8 oclock pm when I heard what I thought was a small bird fly past my head and land on my screen door.It is aprox. 2 inches long see attached picture.Sorry for the poor quality pics.Thank you
Insect Identification
Jackson ,NJ 08527
Toe-Biter
People often mistake the Toe-Biter for a beetle, but the Electric Light Bug or Giant Water Bug is actually an aquatic True Bug.
Possible Blue Morpho aggregate?
Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 7:03 AM
We saw this caterpillar aggregate in the tropics in Brazil, we think it may be the Blue Morpho butterfly
Bill and Linda in Tustin
Brazil, in tropical forest
Unknown Caterpillar Aggregation
Hi Bill and Linda,
We aren’t sure what these phenomenal caterpillars are. They might be Morpho Caterpillars that are supposed to form aggregations. They look somewhat like a Morpho Caterpillar image we located, but not enough to say it is a match. Perhaps one of our readers can enlighten us as to the species, or family of these beauties.
Update: Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 7:09 PM
Hello Bill and Linda,
These caterpillars, with their distinctive reddish coloration and intricate patterning, compare quite favorably with those of *Morpho telemachus* (sorry, no common name). Here are Internet photos from Mato Grosso, Brazil, and Manu, Peru:
http://k41.pbase.com/o6/69/756269/1/84768266.oLXDJgBO.morphorupsen2.JPG
http://www.papiliophotos.com/SearchImages/P-MOT357-2.jpg
Since we know little about this species’ larval range of individual variation, it’s also possible that your caterpillars may be of a very close relative, namely *Morpho cisseis* or (less likely) *Morpho hecuba* — both of which are lacking information on their immature stages. Please tell me: Where in Brazil did you photograph these larvae? Do you recall their size or approximate length? Thanks very much!
Best wishes,
Keith Wolfe
Update: Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 6:42 PM
Hi Daniel,
Re: http://www.whatsthatbug.com/category/caterpillars-and-pupa/
I sure wish I knew why your website corrupts links by arbitrarily adding end-of-line spaces, as happened yet again with:
http://k41.pbase.com/o6/69/756269/1/84768266.oLXDJgBO.morphorupsen2.JPG
^ ^
I truly hate to keep bugging (pun intended) you with these snafus, so please let me know what I’m doing “wrong”. Thanks very much and best wishes!
Cheers,
Keith
Hi Keith,
Thanks for the followup “glitch” report. We know that we cannot just cut and paste from the email service to the website as web links do not make a smooth transition. It adds time to our posting, but we actually need to visit the site by clicking the link in the email and then pasting the url from the address bar when we are on the site, replacing the link information in the email. We then create a new link with that information. We did not do that with the link you have indicated because we were denied access. We suspect the site is either a pay site or one that requires previous registration. Since we were unable to visit the site directly, we did not eliminate the spaces in the URL. That is now corrected, but we are still unable to visit the site. Thanks for your diligence.
Daniel
Update: Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 6:33 PM
Muchas gracias, Daniel, for your time and effort! I don’t know why linking through the WTB site is “Forbidden”, when I have no such difficulty (never registered or paid anything), but in any case, attached is the picture in question. Please feel free to post or ignore as you see appropriate.
Much obliged,
Keith
PS Just for the heck of it, try accessing the photo through your Gmail account (versus WTB server): http://k41.pbase.com/o6/69/756269/1/84768266.oLXDJgBO.morphorupsen2.JPG .
Thanks Keith,
That also came up forbidden, but when we googled Morpho telemachus Bosch, the name of the caterpillar and the surname of the photographer of the photo you attached, we were led to the image online. We are posting a link to the image by Johan van ‘t Bosch of the Netherlands that you identified on a forum for Tropical Butterflies.
A fly with a blue, elongated nose and green wings with yellow polka dots.
Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Found in the rainforest in Borneo.
Vin
Sandakan, Borneo
Lanternflies from Borneo
Hi Vin,
In April 2008, we posted an image of this spectacular Lanternfly in the family Fulgoridae, also from Borneo, but we were never able to identify the species. Perhaps one of our readers will be able to supply us with a species identification.
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