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Monthly Archives February 2010

Red Eyed Leaf Frog from Costa Rica: Not really a bug, but a gorgeous amphibian

February 21, 2010
Hi Bugman,
I think this beauty is a Parachuting Red-Eyed Leaf Frog. Found him in the vack yard at night.
Jordan
Costa Rica

redeyed leaf frog costarica justin 265x300 Red Eyed Leaf Frog from Costa Rica: Not really a bug, but a gorgeous amphibian

Red Eyed Leaf Frog

Hi Jordan,
Since we already set up an Amphibian page to house our selfishly self-produced images of a California Salamander, we will also post your magnificent images of what we are trusting you have properly identified as a Parachuting Red-Eyed Leaf Frog.  We will also post that snake photo you supplied in the hope that someone might assist in the identification.

redeyed leaf frog costarica justin cu 300x224 Red Eyed Leaf Frog from Costa Rica: Not really a bug, but a gorgeous amphibian

Red Eyed Leaf Frog

Correction
wrong ID on amphibian 2010
January 2, 2011 10:44 pm
hello!
just wanted to let you know the post from February 21, 2010 with the leaf frog or whatever they called it is wrong. It is a good old Red Eyed Tree Frog (Agalychnis callidryas). What I think is one of the best looking animals on the planet!
cheers!
Signature: Bryna Belisle

Thanks Bryna,
We should try to locate a corresponding link to verify the identification.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/red-eyed-tree-frogs/
here is one from National Georgaphic, though far from perfect, they
are usually on it!
Bryna

Posted 21 February 2010 § Amphibians ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Mating Cactus Longhorns

February 18, 2010
I tried to send a photo for your Bug Love page, but it failed to upload. Can you accept regular email with attachments?
Eric Eaton suggested that I submit some photos to you (and another site) several months ago, but I’m just now trying that.
Thanks,
Denny Schreffler
Tucson

Hi Denny,
Responding to this email should allow you to attach images.  Please include all the information that is required on our form, like the location, and some information about the insect.  Also, please confine your images to one species per email.
Thanks

February 21, 2010
Thanks, Daniel,
I “replied” by sending the photo through an different email program a few days ago, so I’m not sure that you received it.  Here’s a direct reply with an attachment.
Thought that you might appreciate a pair of Cactus Longhorn Beetles (Moneilema gigas) for your Bug Love page.
Northern Sonoran Desert (southern Arizona), late August during a light rain.
Denny Schreffler

mating cactus longhorns denny 300x237 Mating Cactus Longhorns

Mating Cactus Longhorns

Hi Denny,
We don’t understand why you had problems originally, and we never received your response through your alternate email program.  We are going to contact our web master, who is currently driving across country on holiday, to see if he has a solution to your previous problems.  Having received this attached photo, we are positively thrilled that you submitted a totally awesome image of mating Cactus Longhorns, Moneilema gigas.  The camera angle is perfect and the quality and resolution are excellent.  According to BugGuide, members of this genus “feed on cactus, esp. cholla, Opuntia species.”

Posted 21 February 2010 § Longhorn Beetles ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Crowned Slug Caterpillar

what’s this “bug” or instar stage?
February 20, 2010
Came across this centimetre long insect in mid-autumn along a dirt road beside a forested area. It really stood out for such a small creature.
Bonnie
Forks of the Credit River, ON, Canada

crowned slug bonnie 300x225 Crowned Slug Caterpillar

Crowned Slug Caterpillar

Hi Bonnie,
This is a Crowned Slug Caterpillar, Isa textula.  According to BugGuide:  “Larvae are often found on oak, but also eat leaves of many other trees including cherry, maple, basswood, elm and beech.“  This caterpillar should be handled with care as it is capable of stinging.

Posted 21 February 2010 § Stinging Slug Caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

House Centipede

No clue what this is, found at school computer lab, should i be scared?
February 21, 2010
Hi my friend and I saw this bug at the computer lab at our school crawling up on the wall, we have no clue what it is. It looked black and gray as you can tell it has a lot of legs. Please help! We go to college on a mountain and we swear they have some undiscovered species of insects roaming around.
Sam
Brentwood California

house centipede sam 300x177 House Centipede

House Centipede

Hi Sam,
The House Centipede is not only harmless, it is actually beneficial since it will eat potentially problematic household intruders.

Posted 21 February 2010 § Centipedes ‡ Comments (0) °

Tortoise Beetle Larva on curry in Malaysia: Silana farinosa

Strange Looking Bug Not Identified
February 21, 2010
Hello, I see this bug on the leaves of our curry leaf tree. It doesn’t seem to feed on other tree leaves. Just the curry leaf tree.
mei
Malaysia

silana farinosa larva curry india mei 287x300 Tortoise Beetle Larva on curry in Malaysia: Silana farinosa

Tortoise Beetle Larva: Silana farinosa

Hi mei,
This is the larva of a Leaf Beetle in the family Chrysomelidae, possibly a Tortoise Beetle.  Providing the name of the food plant, curry, should make the identification easier.  We found a Local Beetles’ Battles page of the Asian Entomology Collection and Studies website, that pictures a Tortoise Beetle, Aspidomorpha deusta, and the quote:
“IN 1994, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia entomologist Prof Mohamed S. Mohamedsaid noticed strange white beetles on curry leaf plants. Careful study revealed that the beetles came from a genus restricted to Sri Lanka where it is represented by one species, Silana farinosa, commonly known as the tortoise beetle.
‘The occurrence of Silana farinosa feeding on curry leaves in Malaysia is probably a very recent introduction. It has never been reported before in the country,’ he says.
‘Aspidomorpha deusta’ is a common tortoise beetle east of Java. This foreign species was found on a beach off Kapar, Selangor. –
‘It’s very unlikely that its presence would have gone unnoticed, for the host plant is also an important crop,’  he explains, adding that the leaves of the plant are an essential ingredient in Malaysian cooking, especially curries.
The taxonomist, who works with UKM’s Centre for Insect Systematics, reckons the creatures might have been feeding on dry curry leaves when they were unwittingly packed into someone’s luggage and brought into Malaysia from Sri Lanka.
‘They are real pests as these popular plants are endangered by them,’  he says, adding that the curry leaf plant had never before been attacked by insects as it emits a powerful smell.
More recently, another species of foreign tortoise beetle was found on our shores.
‘In all my years of studying beetles, which included combing the beaches of Malaysia for tortoise beetles, I have never encountered a specimen belonging to the species collected in March last year,’ he says.
According to Prof Mohamed, Aspidomorpha deusta is common from Java eastwards to Papua New Guinea and Australia.”
We then found photos of larval Silana farinosa on the photomalaysia website, and they appear to match your photos.

silana farinosa larva curry india mei 2 300x219 Tortoise Beetle Larva on curry in Malaysia: Silana farinosa

Tortoise Beetle Larva: Silana farinosa

Posted 21 February 2010 § Leaf Beetles ‡ Comments (0) °

Lychee Shield Bug from India

Metalic Geen Bug with black spots
February 21, 2010
Hi…i’m from India. The other day i had a visit from this fascinating bug. It was sitting on one Holy Basil plant in my Verandah. It’s been vacationing on this plant for the last 2 days.
Can you tell me what bug this is and which family of bugs does this belong to?
Thanks.
Sid
North India

jewel bug india sid 300x265 Lychee Shield Bug from India

Lychee Shield Bug

Dear Sid,
Your insect is a Jewel Bug or Shield Backed Bug in the family Scutelleridae.  Scutelleridae was, according to BugGuide:  “formerly considered a subfamily of Pentatomidae” which contain the Stink Bugs.  Both families are now grouped into the superfamily Pentatomoidea, and they are classified in the suborder Heteroptera, the True Bugs.  We found a matching photo on Flickr, but it is incorrectly titled a Jewel Beetle, and True Bugs are in a completely separate order from the beetles.  There are also two different photos of this species posted on photo.net, but they are only identified as Jewel Bugs, without a species name.  Continued searching revealed another photo on Flickr with the caption:  “Kanch Poka (Green Jewel Bug – Lampromicra spp, under Family Scutelleridae), beetle is common insect in rural Bangladeshi bushes.“  Another Flickr page depicted this Jewel Bug with the name Chrysocoris stolli, which we then verified on  Dave’s Garden website with the common name Lychee Shield Bug.  The TrekNature website also pairs the scientific name Chrysocoris stolli with the common name Lychee Shield Bug for this species from India.

jewel bug india 2 sid 300x279 Lychee Shield Bug from India

Lychee Shield Bug

Thanks Daniel for the great info. I found your website on google and its now on my favorite list.
You’ve got a great website for nature enthusiasts. Keep it up. Don’t ever stop it.
I have also made the donation and will make more in future also.
Cheers!
Sid

Thanks for your kind words and your generosity Sid.

Update:  September 10, 2011
Lychee Shield Bug
Website: www.flickr.com/photos/zolivier
September 10, 2011 12:24 pm
Hi Daniel,
I came across you website through a reference to a picture of mine (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zolivier/4032614447/) in this identification post:

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2010/02/21/lychee-shield-bug-from-india/

I always try to get the taxonomy right but mostly rely on pictures searches for identification, which I admit is not always the best way!
(Here’s an example that might have typically led me to get the wrong name: http://www.indianaturewatch.net/displayimage.php?id=194178)
So to rectify, my picture is of a Lychee Shield Bug – or Green Jewel Bug – which is indeed of the Scutelleridae family, and the species is likely to be Chrysocoris stolli, is that right?
I’m keen on rectifying my mistake on my flickr photo…
In the meanwhile I’ve done a bit of reading about differences between true bugs and beetles. I’m really glad I came across your website today, I definitely won’t make the mistake again!
Best Regards,
Signature: Olivier

Hi Olivier,
We agree that this is a Lychee Shield Bug, and we would like to point out that the India Nature Watch website incorrectly identifies it as a Jewel Beetle instead of a Jewel Bug.

2

Posted 21 February 2010 § Stink Bugs and Shield Bugs ‡ Comments (1) °

Earwig

Earwigs in Kansas in February!
February 20, 2010
Hey Bugguy(s),
Greetings again from Topeka, Kansas!
I already know what I’ve got here, but thought it might be worth sharing.
I am including an unremarkable photo of an earwig. The remarkable thing is that the photo was taken today, February-20-2010, here in Kansas.
It’s around 30 degrees F. outside, and snowing too. I thought it was pretty interesting to find an earwig today at the local shopping mall…OK he was indoors, but that makes me wonder…and maybe you can shed some light on this, How long do these guys live? It must be a lot longer than flies, and moths, huh?
Thanks for all you do!
Jeff Volpert
Kansas, United States (right in the middle)

ring legged earwig jeff 300x244 Earwig

Ring Legged Earwig

Hi Jeff,
Your Earwig is a Ring Legged Earwig, Euborellia annulipes.  According to BugGuide:  “A medium-sized dark-brown earwig with dark areas on the light-yellow legs (“black armbands”). Although the species has both winged and wingless forms, only the wingless ones are found in our area. Adults have antennae with 14-16 segments, the third and fourth (sometimes the fifth) from the end being white or pale.“  BugGuide also indicates:  “Its ability to live indoors and habit of hiding in dark places means it can show up just about anywhere people go.”  We are not certain what the maximum life expectancy for an Earwig is, but we suspect it is approximately a year.

2

Posted 21 February 2010 § Earwigs ‡ Comments (1) °

Derbid Planthopper in Singapore

Orange (Black-winged) Leaf Sucking Insect?
February 19, 2010
Hi Bugman,
I found this interesting insect under a leaf and it doesn’t seem to be bothered by me getting close and taking pictures of it. It has long black wings that form a V shape (perpendicular to the body).

planthopper singapore zybertooth 300x299 Derbid Planthopper in Singapore

Derbid Planthopper

It seemed that it was busy sucking on a leaf… with it’s mouth (or snout) stuck in the vein of the leaf.
I tried searching the whatsthatbug or the net, and I don’t know if I hit the correct key words to get any good search results.. icon sad Derbid Planthopper in Singapore
Thanks a lot for your help!
zybertooth
Singapore

planthopper singapore zybertooth 2 259x300 Derbid Planthopper in Singapore

Derbid Planthopper

Dear zybertooth,
At first we thought this was some species of Fly in the order Diptera, but now we believe it is a Planthopper in the superfamily Fulgoroidea.  It resembles one North American species pictured on BugGuide.  We have not had any luck matching your amazing photos to anything posted online, but we will enlist the assistance of our readership on this identification.  We will also contact Eric Eaton to see if he concurs that it is a Planthopper, or if he can confirm our original suspicion that it might be a Fly.

planthopper singapore cu zybertooth 214x300 Derbid Planthopper in Singapore

Derbid Planthopper

Eric Eaton Agrees
Planthopper, definitely.  Lois O’Brien would know, of course.  Maybe Derbidae?
Cool image!
Eric

Hi Bugman,
I just found out from a friend who’s a nature enthusiast that this is a Derbid Bug.
FYI,
zybertooth

Posted 20 February 2010 § Aphids, Scale Insects, Leafhoppers, and Tree Hoppers ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

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