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Monthly Archives March 2010

Immature Large Milkweed Bug part of experiment

Red and Black bug
March 7, 2010
I am doing these bugs as an experiment and I am having difficulty identifying them. They are being raised in a petri dish and eat water and sunflower seeds.
Cassalyn Sands
North Carolina

milkweed bug cassalyn 300x204 Immature Large Milkweed Bug part of experiment

Immature Large Milkweed Bug

Hi Cassalyn,
You didn’t really indicate the nature of your experiment, and if sunflower seeds are a necessary component.  This is an immature Large Milkweed Bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus, and milkweed, not sunflower, is its food of choice.  According to BugGuide:  They eat the “Seeds of milkweed plants.“

Posted 08 March 2010 § Seed Bugs ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Rat Tailed Maggots eaten by Trout

These were coughed up out of a rainbow trout I recently caught
March 8, 2010
A friend of mine recently caught a rainbow trout that coughed these up when he landed the fish. Any idea what they are. They are it a shot glass for sizing scale.
anonymous
Vancouver Island, British Columbia

rat tailed maggots trout1 300x206 Rat Tailed Maggots eaten by Trout

Rat Tailed Maggots

Dear anonymous,
These Rat Tailed Maggots are the aquatic larvae of the Drone Fly.

Posted 08 March 2010 § Maggots § Syrphid Flies ‡ Comments (2) °

Desert Wolf Spider from Australia

Black and yellow spider
March 7, 2010
Myself and Haylee went spider hunting during an overnight stay in the bush near Cocklebiddy in WA, Australia . We found a few of these spiders and Haylee managed to get some good pictures of one of the few that didn’t dissapear down its burrow when we approached. We can’t seem to identify it despite searching online. Any ideas? Many Thanks.
Charlie and Haylee
Cocklebiddy, WA, Australia

wolf spider australia charlie 300x225 Desert Wolf Spider from Australia

Desert Wolf Spider

Hi Charlie and Haylee,
This is possibly the most gorgeous Wolf Spider in the family Lycosidae we have ever seen.  The arrangement of the eyes is an identifying factor, and the explanation “These spider have eight dark eyes of unequal size arranged in three rows, the first having four eyes” and a diagram are available on BugGuide.

wolf spider australia charlie 2 300x228 Desert Wolf Spider from Australia

Desert Wolf Spider

We have not had any luck with a species identification, which surprises us as this is such a unique spider.  Perhaps one of our readers will have better luck and assist us with the identification.

wolf spider australia charlie 3 300x234 Desert Wolf Spider from Australia

Desert Wolf Spider

Karl finds the answer again
It is a beauty!  The closest I could find was Hoggicosa (=Lycosa) bicolor, the Two-coloured or Desert Wolf Spider. There are several photos on the internet which look very similar, except that the colour is not such a vivid yellow. This may be a case of odd light conditions, regional colour variability or sexual dimorphism. It could also be a case of changing appearance with successive moults. In H. bicolor, the males apparently go from a striking two-tone appearance to totally cryptic in their final moult. I couldn’t determine if males and females look different. Here are a few links:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/Spidaus.html
http://www.ozimages.com.au/stock/AustralianSpiders.asp
http://flickriver.com/photos/australianspiders/4100778476/
http://flickriver.com/photos/australianspiders/4100041011/
Karl

Posted 07 March 2010 § Wolf Spiders ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Giant Dung Beetle from South Africa

Huge black screaming beetle found in road
March 7, 2010
A friend found this beetle in Gezina, Pretoria, South Africa, last night (6 March 2010). It was screaming so loudly that he was able to hear it from inside his shop, so he went out to investigate, thinking that it was a bat that had been injured. It is missing some legs, but can still hobble around. I have looked around on the Internet and from what I have found, it seems to be some kind of dung beetle – the flightless one? Not sure, though, because it seems to me not as smooth as the flightless dung beetle, and its head and “shoulders” seem a bit different. The head is flat, and from when I held it in my hand and it got the head in between my fingers, I know that it must be quite strong, because it was able to push my fingers apart with the head.
Kirsten Eksteen, Pretoria, South Africa
Pretoria, South Africa (in the part of Pretoria called “The Moot”)

giant dung beetle south africa kirsten 297x300 Giant Dung Beetle from South Africa

Giant Dung Beetle

Hi Kirsten,
We did a bit of research by web searching “largest beetles in Africa” and we found what appeared to be a match on the Beetles of Africa website, a commercial site for collectors.  There are several views of Heliocopris faunus that are called Giant Dung Beetles.  We double checked that identification, and found similar images for the genus Heliocopris on the Encyclopedia of Life website.  The God of Insects website, another commercial site, has images of the Elephant Dung Beetle, Heliocopris dominus, that also look similar to your specimen, which is most likely a female.  Many Scarab Beetles, the family that includes the Giant Dung Beetles, are able to make sounds, termed stridulation, but rubbing parts of their bodies together.

giant dung beetle south africa kirsten 2 300x191 Giant Dung Beetle from South Africa

Giant Dung Beetle

Dear Daniel
Thanks for your unexpectedly speedy response! (seeing that it is Sunday, I didn’t expect to hear from you until at least tomorrow afternoon).
I appreciate the information and will go and investigate the sites that you have sent me.  Thanks, also, for saying that it is probably a female, and for giving me the correct word for the sound that she made.
By the way, I had a good chuckle about the “Just to prove you are a human being” part of your web page:  I wrote “White (when it’s clean!)”, to which the system replied, “Please double-check you verification code”.  In other words, “Prove that you are human by giving me a one-word answer;  I am not interested in whether or not you are witty or can think further than the obvious.”  That’s machines for you, eh?
Sincerely
Kirsten.

Posted 07 March 2010 § Scarab Beetles ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:

Winter Firefly

Unknown Beetle Southern NH
March 6, 2010
I found this beetle outside today. It was just sitting on a rock. It was about 50 F today, the warmest it’s been for many months here in southern NH. I’d like to know what type of beetle it is. Also, I’d like to know what it eats. In the future I’d like a method to identify bugs like this. I looked at a web-site bugguide.net which has a lot of information but it is quite difficult to sort through. Any suggestions? Thank you!
Sophie
Southern NH

winter firefly sophie 300x296 Winter Firefly

Winter Firefly

Hi Sophie,
WE believe we have identified your Winter Firefly, Ellychnia corrusca, on BugGuide.  The time of year is one of the strongest pieces of evidence supporting the identification.  BugGuide’s Data page has information on sightings at various times of the year.

winter firefly sophie 2 300x194 Winter Firefly

Winter Firefly

Posted 06 March 2010 § Fireflies and Glowworms ‡ Comments (0) °

Rove Beetle from Austria: Staphylinus caesareus

Odd looking insect
March 6, 2010
Greetings, on my summer holiday (July 2009)I found this insect crawling on the ground. It was about an inch long. Here’s hoping you can tell me what this is because it’s been bugging me ever since I took the photo with my mobile phone. Only one picture was reasonable, the rest are all vague but I added one because it shows some more detail on the head.
Thank you for your time.
Henk de Vries, The Netherlands
Carinthia, Austria

rove beetle henk austria 300x221 Rove Beetle from Austria: Staphylinus caesareus

Rove Beetle: Staphylinus caesareus

Hi Henk,
This is a Rove Beetle in the family Staphylinidae.  We will try to get a species identification when we have more time.

rove beetle austria henk 2 300x235 Rove Beetle from Austria: Staphylinus caesareus

Rove Beetle: Staphylinus caesareus

Comment:
This is Staphylinus caesareus.
mardikavana

Thanks for the comment mardikavana.  We found a link on Wild About Britain that pictures and describes Staphylinus caesareus.  We also found a matching photo on BioLib.  Rove Beetles are important predators that help to control populations of invertebrates.

Posted 06 March 2010 § Rove Beetles ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged:

Male Mottled Umber Moth

Update from Molly
February 27, 2010
Mottled umber moth Sorry to bug you again…….
OK I found a male moth yesterday and put it in the freezer. It doesn’t have the exact color patterns I see on the Internet but it has the same fringe on the bottom of the wings and matches the basic shape of an adult mottled umber moth. This particular moth is one of the more drab looking variations. Get back to me on where I should send the specimen.
Molly
Dunsmuir, CA

Hi Molly,
We hope you can send us a photo of the male moth for our website.  You can contact the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service or APHIS at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/about_aphis/ .  In the past, we have had contact with Stephanie Dubon about invasive species.  You can try contacting her via email at npag@aphis.usda.gov .  In California, the USDA is kept pretty busy, and there is an Invasive Pest Website at http://www.hungrypests.com/ and they can be emailed at info@hungrypests.com for additional details.

March 6, 2010
Sorry for the delay. Here’s the pic of the male Mottled umber moth I found. It’s patterns are different than usual but it has the same physical shape. I’m not 100% sure on why, but it may be because it’s in a different environment.

mottled umber moth male molly 300x210 Male Mottled Umber Moth

Male Mottled Umber Moth

Hi Molly,
Thanks for sending the photo you believe to be a male Mottled Umber Moth, and invasive species that may be gaining a foothold in California.

Posted 06 March 2010 § Geometrid Moths ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Blurry Dots: Pantry Beetles or Carpet Beetles, perhaps

dark borwn bug small like a lady bug with white dots on and wings.
March 4, 2010
i keep finding them round my room, sometimes on the wall but i have found one in the car. They are really starting to freak me out and was hoping you could tell me what they are.
Help
Bedroom

dots help 300x204 Blurry Dots: Pantry Beetles or Carpet Beetles, perhaps

Blurry Dots or possibly Pantry Beetles

Dear (not terribly) Help(ful),
We believe you may need more help than we are able to provide.  A bedroom and a car are not really geographical locations in any way that would provide us with the information we requested in terms of geography, and your photo is pretty much useless for any identification purposes.  We can only surmise that you probably have either Pantry Beetles or Carpet Beetles, or perhaps even both.

Posted 06 March 2010 § Pantry Beetles, Grain Weevils, Spider Beetles, Meal Worms and Carpet Beetles ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged:

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