What is this Grasshopper?!?!?
September 13, 2009
Hi Mr. Bugman!
I am a ninth grade student down in Texas, and I am doing a Biology Pre-Ap project on Arthropods. I caught this grasshopper (actually, my dad did 
in a dry creekbed. The pictures are of the side, top, and bottom view. I was wondering if you could Identify it. Please and Thanks!!! Please help!!! Due date coming up soon . Thank you for all of your help. I might need more soon!
Student in Need
San Antonio Area, Texas
Grasshopper
Dear Student in Need,
We do not condone parents doing homework for students which constitutes academic dishonesty. We feel the same about identifying the four photographs you have sent to us, though we applaud your honesty in admitting that these identifications are needed quickly for a school project. The purpose of this project is to teach necessary skills that you would not be getting should we identify all of your requests for you. Since this is a research project, we would recommend that you try to identify your three grasshoppers on BugGuide by browsing through the Grasshoppers in the suborder Caelifera, and that you try to identify the Skipper by browsing through the superfamily Hesperioidea also on BugGuide. Even if your identifications are incorrect, you will be learning the fundamentals of taxonomic classification and eventually learning the correct answers in school can become part of a learning dialog.
Eric Eaton Comments
September 16, 2009
Daniel:
I very much like how you handled this identification request! Should you eventually want to post this somewhere else on your site, I can tell you it is a female in the genus Syrbula. I think both species occur in Texas. Males are smaller and dark brown with ivory markings.
Eric
Mean Looking Armored ?
September 13, 2009
I found this bug in a web on my fence walkthrough. I have never seen anything like it. 6 Legs, “Spiky armor” down it’s back. and it’s head is like a needle. This is one mean looking bug! I don;t know weather it made the web or just got caught in it. On it’s lower-side, very back there is a red spot and it seems that it’s dripping down the web in the photos.
David
West, Lafayette, Indiana
Wheel Bug trapped in web
Hi David,
This is a predatory Wheel Bug and it is reported that the bite is quite painful. Wheel Bugs do not form webs and this individual has been trapped in a Spider’s Web.
Beetle (?) Identification
September 13, 2009
A few days ago, I noticed one of these flying around the living room, and at first thought it was a yellow jacket. Yesterday, there were two, and today I’ve killed 3!
I’ve about worn myself out looking at bug sites and image searches, and thought you might be able to help. I’m not sure if its the recent rain, or the long drought proceeding it that has brought them inside.
Looking around, I thought they looked a bit like soldier beetles, but with opposite colorings. They are about an inch long, and seem to be attracted to the lights.
The bug in the pictures has been squished, but hopefully the markings are enough!
Thanks!
Sarah
Texas Gulf Coast
Corsair Assassin Bug Carnage
Dear Sarah,
Though they are not aggressive, if they are carelessly handled, Assassin Bugs in the genus Rasahus, known as Corsair Assassin Bugs, can bite painfully. Despite this fact, we still feel that these beneficial predators need not be killed unnecessarily, leading us to classify your letter as Unnecessary Carnage. Based on images posted to BugGuide, we believe your individual is Rasahus biguttatus.
What is this bug?
September 13, 2009
The maintenance man removed this on wednesday and today I woke up and it was on the wall again. I noticed antennas coming out of the top of it but I’ve never seen the the actual bug. It’s above the sink in the kitchen and it’s really freaking me out.
J. Santiago
Mesa, AZ
Termite Tunnel
Hi J.,
This is evidence of Termite Infestation, probably Subterranean Termites based on an image posted to BugGuide. According to Charles Hogue in Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, the Western Subterranean Termite “requires high humidity” and it often travels between “subterranean galleries and the wood through protected cracks in mortar or concrete foundations, or through earthen tubes that it constructs from soil, saliva, and chewed bits of wood.”
Thanks a lot. The maintenance made it like I was crazy and said it was nothing. He just rubbed it off the wall with a tool and put plaster on it. I’ll get it someone to take a look at it. Thanks again.
Jennifer Santiago
Nasty lime green beetle turning a bit yellow now. They do fly and they don’t like it when I water.
September 12, 2009
Moved in, on the leaves of the pumpkin plants, now starting on the blossoms. Then some went to the sunflowers, too.
These are the BIG pumpkins, and don’t want them going to the pumpkins themselves.
Cathy
Extreme north central Iowa, close to the Minnesota border.
Northern Corn Rootworm Beetle
Hi Cathy,
We believe these are Northern Corn Rootworms, Diabrotica barberi, a species of Skeletonizing Leaf Beetle, based on images posted to BugGuide.
Northern Corn Rootworm
What Are These Lepidopterans?
September 12, 2009
My younger son and I found this Lepidopteran sheltering on the underside of a petrol-pump in Pickens, Mississippi, today (09.12.09) in late afternoon (apx 17:00). We put it into a small container and brought it home to show to The Budding Naturalist, because we knew he would be fascinated. Its antenna are smooth-looking, but not clubbed, and its body is fat and stubby, white except at the very tip of the tail end, which is a coppery yellowish colour. At rest, its clear, blackish-brown margined wings are spread wide, and its silhouette is generally triangular, with a slight scallop to the lower edge of the wings. Also, when at rest, the tail end curves up and out. I’ve lived in the Mid-South all my life, and I have never seen a specimen like this one, and I’m not having any luck finding anything similar online. Can you help?I am also attaching a shot of what we think is Manduca quinquemaculatus (5-spotted hawkmoth) which my son reared from a caterpillar. (He is currently rearing several of these tomato hornworms that he saved from his Grandma’s garden–she wanted to smush it!)And a shot of what we think is a Synchlora aerata that showed up a few days ago on the siding of our front porch in Memphis, TN.
Editormum and the Bug Boys
Southern United States, MS and west TN
Melonworm Moth
Dear Editormum and Bug Boys,
Your unidentified moth is a Melonworm Moth, Diaphania hyalinata. We have identified this moth in the past, but we were unable to remember its name, so we searched our archives until we found a posting from 2008. According to BugGuide: “Larvae feed on cucumber family plants: cucumber, melon, squash. Can be pests. Many generations (3?) in south, disperses northward in fall, does not persist there.“ Your other identifications seem correct to us.
¶ Posted 13 September 2009 § Moths ‡ ° Bug on goldenrod
September 13, 2009
Photographed this guy/gal on a goldenrod plant along driveway–think it’s gorgeous and would like to know what I’m admiring. Also want to enter photo in competition and need ID to accompany it.
Sue C
Southern Maryland
Assassin Bug
Hi Sue,
There is an entire ecosystem that thrives when the goldenrod blooms, from the nectar and pollen seeking creature, to the predators that prey upon them. This is an Assassin Bug in the genus Pselliopus, probably Pselliopus cinctus. According to BugGuide it is often found where insects visit flowers.
Thanks so much for your reply. I sort of thought it was an assassin bug based on what I could get from my insect guides. Sue
frankenstein’s pet
September 12, 2009
I found this gal/fellow running in floppy circles around in a hole my turtle had dug days ago in the backyard, so it doesn’t seem likely that it can burrow or it would have done so to escape. It looks like it is a bad experiment in combining insect parts. It does not Look injured, but it Acts injured, or else just horribly, horribly clumsy. It keeps flopping over onto it’s back (a preferred position?) although it does not seem to be able to move around that way as some grubs do. It keeps assuming a posture with it’s rump raised, head bucked thorax up and head down, and little front four “arms” raised, hind legs down on the “knees” and the barbed feet raised. I guess this may be a defensive posture though it looks useless. It has very shiny black wi ngs (but doesn’t fly) and the rest is a somewhat velvety though not furry looking beige. Oh, and it is fairly aggressive as it ran at and bit a hapless worm sharing the container I first dumped it into… It made no attempt to cling on to or consume the worm so I think it was just acting out anger at being dumped into the pot. What is this critter?
ToadShade
Virginia, Prince William county
Rove Beetle
Dear ToadShade,
This is some species of Rove Beetle, possibly Platydracus maculosus. According to BugGuide, it feeds on carrion.
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