What is this bug that has invaded my culture and is it dangerous to my black soldier fly larva?
September 25, 2009
Hi, I have found and killed 30-40 of these bugs in my black soldier fly larva culture. They appear to be some sort of mimick cause they look very similar to adult soldier flies. They do not have wings or stingers. I have seen copulation so I am assuming they are adults. They have mandibles similar to an ant or beatle. Please let my know if these guys are simply a pest competing with the soldier fly larva for food or are the fly larva being preyed upon by this bug? And, if known, how do I get rid of them without damaging the culture or detering the attraction of the wild adult soldier flies laying eggs?
Jason P.
Dallas Texas
Hairy Rove Beetles
Hi Jason,
These are Hairy Rove Beetles, Creophilus maxillosus, and they are predators. According to BugGuide, they are found on dead animals and dung and they are: “predaceous on fly larvae in [cattle] dung and on carrion.“ In most situations, we would tag your letter as Unnecessary Carnage, but in this case, we are torn. Since you are doing bio-composting with the Soldier Flies, you don’t want predators, even beneficial insects, invading your culture. Sadly, we cannot provide any suggestions for keeping the Rove Beetles from the fly culture.
Hairy Rove Beetles
¶ Posted 25 September 2009 § Beetles ‡ ° What the hell is this thing??
September 23, 2009
My uncle asked me to help him identify this insect. Picture taken today, Sept 23, 2009, in Hopkins MN. The tail end of this bug can fold out & fan out like a chinese fan and it looks like a left–bright green. The long probiscus’ off the back end of it were into the tree, not sure if it was eating something or putting eggs in or what.
Anne Rolli
Hopkins, MN
Giant Ichneumon
Hi Anne,
This is a Giant Ichneumon in the genus Megarhyssa. She is depositing eggs under the bark and the larvae will feed on wood boring larvae.
Caterpillar found in blueberry bushes
September 23, 2009
I found this caterpillar taking a ride on my son’s shirt during an early morning of blueberry picking. I took its picture on my finger to show the size, and then we happily set it back onto a blueberry bush. I can’t find an identification for it. Thank you!
Nichole
Michigan (Ann Arbor area) in the summer (end of August)
Unicorn Caterpillar, or imposter???
Hi Nichole,
Interestingly, we just finished posting another photo of a Unicorn Caterpillar, or False Unicorn Caterpillar from the genus Schizura. Your photo with the translucent talon, we mean fingernail, is awesome.
Unicorn Caterpillar? or False Unicorn Caterpillar??
Strange Cricket ID
September 23, 2009
Found this cricket (?) in our barn here in Olympia, WA, this evening. It doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen before. I was by itself in the corner of our barn. I’ve had it i a jar for an hour and no sounds have come from it but it jumps like a son of a gun. It has very long antennae and a tail of sorts.
Sincerely, Cynthe Slaybaugh
Olympia, WA
Sierra Shieldback Katydid
Hi Cynthe,
We believe you have found a Sierra Shieldback Katydid in the genus Neduba. We are linking to a BugGuide page with a nice image from Oregon that originated as a submission to our own website several years ago.
Sierra Shieldback Katydid
Awesome! Thank you! Here are a couple more pics. We let her go this morning.
Sierra Shieldback Katydid
Thanks for sending in additional photos of a higher quality.
Sierra Shieldback Katydid
¶ Posted 24 September 2009 § Katydids ‡ ° Yellow caterpillar
September 21, 2009
Once again I need your help! In June I was hiking through Zion National Park in Utah and saw this little yellow caterpillar in a Prince’s Plume flower. I have searched high and low through Caterpillars in the Field and Garden and cannot find this little guy (or gal).
I’m also including this awesome picture of a black widow I took last friday. She was posing beautifully and thought I’d share it.
Thank you for always coming through and helping me!
Holly
Zion National Park, Utah
Becker's White Caterpillar from Utah
Hi Holly,
Sadly, we don’t recognize your caterpillar, and we are a bit pressed for time, so we cannot immediately research this. We are posting your letter and photo in the hope that that one of our readers might assist you. Since the range of the Prince’s Plume Flower, Stanleya pinnata, is listed as Southern Utah, we expect that the caterpillar might be relatively easy to identify if it is associated with the plant. Here is more information on the Prince’s Plume Flower.
Update:
Thanks to Karl’s comment, we now know that this is a Becker’s White (Pontia beckerii) caterpillar (family Pieridae).
Update from Keith Wolfe
September 26, 2009
Hi Daniel,
Hello Holly,
For more excellent Utah photos of the Becker’s White:
http://www.wildutah.us/h_b_pontia_beckeri_immatures.html
In California, where I live, this species also utilizes Bladderpod (Isomeris arborea, family Cleomaceae), and similar to other butterflies whose larvae feed on plant inflorescences, it completes development in relatively few days (egg 3, caterpillar 14, chrysalis 6).
Best wishes,
Keith Wolfe
Caterpillar on Western Redbud
September 21, 2009
Caterpillar on Western Redbud
2 feeding this afternoon in the hot California sun
J serences
Carmichael CA Central Valley
Red Hump Caterpillar
Hi J,
We believe this to be a Red Hump Caterpillar, Schizura concinna, a species of Prominent Moth. The caterpillars, according to BugGuide: “feed on a wide range of woody plants.“
Unicorn Caterpillar
September 23, 2009
Was walking with the 2 year old in the swamp park in Southern Illinois today and found a strange looking caterpillar. Some research has it as a Schizura unicornis (I think…do they eat oak?).
The camouflage was strikingly good from some angles, the green “window” in its mid-section is exactly as translucent as leaves with the sun behind them.
Thought you might like some pictures.
Bert in Illinois
Southern Illinois
Possibly Unicorn Caterpillar
Dear Bert,
BugGuide lists the food plants of the Unicorn Caterpillar as: “alder, apple, Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides), White Birch (Betula papyrifera), elm, hawthorn, hickory, willow“, while the closely related and similar looking Morning Glory Prominent or False Unicorn Caterpillar has its food plants listed as: “leaves of beech, birch, elm, maple, morning-glory, oak, rose, and other woody plants” on BugGuide. We would entertain the possibility that the list of plants for the Unicorn Caterpillar might be incomplete, and that your caterpillar might be either species.
Third try for pink/red grasshopper
September 23, 2009
We found this grasshopper inside our WV house in late October– I haven’t found it on your site, or elsewhere, and I think it’s very pretty! Can you help?
Jessica
Morgantown, WV
Two Spotted Tree Cricket
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for your persistence. We wish we had the time to answer all of our mail, especially since we realize how very important it is to our readership to have their letter recognized and perhaps even posted online. This appears to be a Smooth Legged Tree Cricket in the genus Neoxabea, the Two Spotted Tree Cricket, Neoxabea bipunctata. According to BugGuide, your specimen is a male which is described as: “The male is a paler color — red tinged head and pronotum, pale pink-tinged wings and pale flesh-toned limbs. The male Neoxabea is the only TC male whose wings wrap down the sides of the body (like those of the female) — Oecanthus species males have paddle-shaped wings that lay atop their body.“ BugGuide also indicates: “Males sing mostly at night: a 10-second trill followed by several seconds of silence, then a trill again. After mating, male hangs downward from foliage, allowing female to hang on beneath and dine on secretions from his thorax (1).”
Two Spotted Tree Cricket
Thank you so much! I’m glad my persistence paid off and didn’t come off as pestering.
We appreciate that you actually sent your information as well as attaching the photos on your subsequent submissions. Often people will just send a followup query with no photos and we cannot take the time to search the mailbox for their original letters.
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