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Monthly Archives May 2010

Fishing Spider: Molting or Mating???

Fishing Spider – Dolomedes scriptus?
May 25, 2010
Searched tons of images and dolomedes scriptus is the closest I can find. It appears the 2 spiders mated and the female consumed the male. The 2 of them were hanging from the flagstone at the edge of our pond. I also have a short 10 second video I shot of them.
R. Kitchen
Angus, Ontario

fishing spiders mate eat rkitchen 2 202x300 Fishing Spider: Molting or Mating???

Molting Fishing Spider

Dear R. Kitchen,
Wow, these photos are awesome.  We believe you have correctly identified these Fishing Spiders as Dolomedes scriptus based on images and information on BugGuide.  At first we ran with your mating and cannibalism scenario, but upon closer inspection, we believe you have documented the aftermath of a Fishing Spider molting.  Spiders do not mate like insects do.  Rather, a male spider transfers his spermatazoa to the female with his pedipalps.  We would really love to get feedback from an arachnologist regarding your documentation.  We have yet to post any videos to our website, and if you would like to submit your video, we will discuss the matter with our webmaster as to how best to showcase it on our site.  Thank you again for submitting these phenomenal images.

fishing spiders mate eat rkitchen 265x300 Fishing Spider: Molting or Mating???

Molting Fishing Spider

Thanks to everyone who corrected our error.  In our haste to post this letter and photos, we incorrectly indicated that the male transfers his spermatozoa with chelicera rather than his pedipalps.  We have made the correction.

Very cool!  Yes, a molting Dolomedes species….By the way, males transfer sperm with their “pedipalps,” not their jaws!
Eric

Thanks Daniel for the quick response. It makes a lot more sense and explains why what looked like the other spiders head was on it’s back. The husk was just skin when I inspected it. I also lifted a rock and found a smaller, older husk.
Wish I had more water striders in my pond for it to feed on (ther’s only one). It’s sitting there just waiting for something to pass by.
How should I get the video in and would you have a preferred format?
I’m also taking some more shots of it if you’re interested.
Thanks,
Richard

Hi Richard,
Our website traffic has suddenly spiked, and there are many unanswered letters in our mailbox right now.  If the photos you take are awesome, try sending them, and hopefully we will be able to post them.

fishing spider eric 3 300x199 Fishing Spider: Molting or Mating???

Fishing Spider

Attached are 2 additional images showing the spider head on.

fishing spider eric 41 300x199 Fishing Spider: Molting or Mating???

Fishing Spider

Posted 25 May 2010 § Nursery Web Spiders ‡ Comments (2) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Io Moth

Texas Moth with a Hammerhead?
May 25, 2010
This moth and another were resting on some discarded vegetation in my mother’s back yard which is located in a very wooded part of Southeast Texas. It was spotted on May 24 on a hot muggy day. I’ve included an image of a second moth too.
Lori
Porter Texas.. northern suburb of Houston

io moth lori 300x207 Io Moth

Io Moth

Dear Lori,
Your lovely moth is a male Io Moth, Automeris io.  Male Io Moths are yellow while females are a reddish brown.  Both males and females have distinctive eyespots.  According to BugGuide, the Io Moth is also called the Peacock Moth.

Posted 25 May 2010 § Giant Silk Moths ‡ Comments (0) °

Chalcid Wasp

chalcid wasp in my house
May 24, 2010
Hi, just discovered that this is a chalcid wasp and that they are beneficials, but don’t know how or why they are in the house and would like to see if anyone knows what type of chalcid this is, bc I guess that term is pretty broad. Would these guys get in the house from a parasitized house fly?
Thanks!
Tiffany
Wilmington, NC

chalcid tiffany 300x171 Chalcid Wasp

Chalcid Wasp

Hi Tiffany,
WE do not have the necessary skills to identify this Chalcid Wasp to the species level.  Most Chalcids parasitize insects in the orders Lepidoptera and Diptera, but some parasitize beetles.  According to BugGuide:  “All chalcidids are parasitic. Most attack pupae of Lepidoptera and Diptera, but some parasitize other Hymenoptera or beetles. Parasites of Lepidoptera usually attack young pupae, while those of Diptera attack mature larvae.“  We frequently receive letters regarding flies suddenly appearing in the home, and often a failure to remove garbage in a timely manner will cause maggots to proliferate.  An incident like that could give rise to the Chalcid sighting.

Posted 25 May 2010 § Parasitic Hymenopterans ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Scarlet Malachite Beetle from Canada

Red winged Beetle?
May 24, 2010
I am not sure if this is a fly or a beetle as it does have wings, that are red. Can you tell em what this bug is?
Gary
Edmonton Alberta Canada

ground beetle red canada gary 300x253 Scarlet Malachite Beetle from Canada

Scarlet Malachite Beetle

Hi Gary,
We spent about twenty minutes browsing the tribes and genera and species of Ground Beetles in the family Carabidae on BugGuide to no avail.  We need assistance in the proper identification of your unknown Ground Beetle.  Our best guess is that it may be in the subfamily Carabinae, also represented on BugGuide.

Correction thanks to Eric Eaton
Hi, Daniel:
Ok, well, maybe that is because it is not a ground beetle icon smile Scarlet Malachite Beetle from Canada   The image, a very nice one, is of a “Scarlet Malachite Beetle” :
http://bugguide.net/node/view/50621
Thanks for sharing, regardless of whether you recognized it!
Eric

Ed. Note: This Scarlet Malachite Beetle represents a new family for us, the Soft Winged Flower Beetles in the family Melyridae, which is profiled on BugGuide which indicates they feed upon:  “chiefly insects but food preferences vary; adults evidently feed on flower-visiting insects and pollen, larvae are primarily predators of other insects.“

Posted 24 May 2010 § Soft Winged Flower Beetles ‡ Comments (2) °

Cockchafer

What is this moth?
May 23, 2010
My friend had a pair of two HUGE moths flying against his window when he was in Lincolnshire, England. They seem unusually large for England. We have no idea what kind they were, We assume they would probably be some kind of hawk moth. We have some photos and we thought it might be best to ask you instead of searching google images. x Thankyou
Moth-lover Viola VonGore
Lincolnshire, England

cockchafer england viola 300x189 Cockchafer

Cockchafer

Dear Viola,
The Cockchafer, Melolontha melolontha, a species of Scarab Beetle, was once much more common in the UK than it is now, probably due to the use of pesticides between the fifties and the seventies.  The AgroAtlas website, the Interactive Agricultural Ecological Atlas of Russia and Neighboring Countries, has some good information on the Cockchafer.  The Cockchafer is sometimes called a Billy Witch.

cockchafer england viola 2 300x182 Cockchafer

Cockchafer

Posted 24 May 2010 § Scarab Beetles ‡ Comments (0) °

Lefty and Digitalis lay more eggs with remaining fry still in aquarium. 39 Fry moved.

May 24, 2010
I just noticed that Lefty and Digitalis have laid eggs on the leaf of the speckled sword plant, and there are still at least 30 fry in the aquarium with them.  I just captured 10 fry in an attempt to remove all remaining fry to the grow out aquarium.
In my second attempt, I caught 29 more small fry, and that appears like it may be all of them, though they are hiding quite well.  All the 39 fry that were captured had fat round bellies, and I watched them eating the spawn.  It must have been an enormous spawning since there are still quite a few eggs remaining.  When I looked at the aquarium this afternoon, things just seemed different.  The fry were not clamoring around the glass with the parents.  They were hanging out in the rear of the aquarium, near where the spawning had occurred.

May 27, 2010
Lefty and Digitalis’ eggs hatched sometime yesterday because they were gone from the leaf when I returned home at about 8:30 PM.  I noticed a small cluster of hatched fry wriggling on another leaf.  This is not a large hatching.  It will be interesting to see if they are raised by the parents, or abandoned for a larger brood.

May 30, 2010
There are about 30 fry wriggling on the leaf of the sword plant where they were moved shortly after hatching.  The parents do not seem interested in moving the fry again.  The photo taken today is hopelessly blurry.

fry 20100530 300x236 Lefty and Digitalis lay more eggs with remaining fry still in aquarium. 39 Fry moved.

Lefty and Digitalis' Fry: three days after hatching

May 31, 2010
About 50 fry became free swimming today, and they had their first meal of newly hatched brine shrimp.  The parents are protective, and the fry are quickly herded back together if any individuals stray from the school.

digitalis lefty fry 20100531 300x260 Lefty and Digitalis lay more eggs with remaining fry still in aquarium. 39 Fry moved.

Digitalis (left) and Lefty with Fry

By the time I decided to take some photos, the light in the aquarium was very low since this birthing aquarium does not have a light fixture.  The only light is daylight coming from windows on the west side and from the north porch with the awning.  The back of the aquarium has much algae.

lefty fry 20100531 300x279 Lefty and Digitalis lay more eggs with remaining fry still in aquarium. 39 Fry moved.

Lefty and Fry

Posted 24 May 2010 § aquarium ‡ Comments (0) °

Huntsman Spider

Is this a Florida wolf spider?
May 24, 2010
This spider appeared on our kitchen ceiling as I was innocently cooking dinner. We had found a similar spider the week beforehand in our garage. I am hoping that it’s just a wolf spider since there seems to be a family. Can you identify it?
Kristen
Saint Petersburg, FL

huntsman spider kristen 300x282 Huntsman Spider

Huntsman Spider

Dear Kristen,
This non-native Huntsman Spider, Heteropoda venatoria, is also called a Banana Spider because it spread to many parts of the world by stowing away in bunches of bananas.  This species is harmless, and it has naturalized in many warmer climates with ports.  This Huntsman Spider is actually a beneficial species since it is a nocturnal hunter and it feeds on night foraging cockroaches.  Your individual is a male.

Posted 24 May 2010 § Huntsman Spiders ‡ Comments (0) °

Swarming Mayflies

A Zillion Mayflies
May 24, 2010
Thought you might enjoy the photo.
This was taken on a family camping trip in 2003 if I remember correctly.
I walked to the bathroom without a flashlight the night they all came out. I thought the crunchy things I kept stepping on were just leaves, until I reached the bathroom, which had lights… That’s the last time I can recall ever running around barefoot in the dark.
DD
Camp in Manistique, MI

mayfly swarm manistique dd 300x225 Swarming Mayflies

Swarming Mayflies

Dear DD,
Thanks for the wonderful photo and field observations.

mayfly swarm manistique dd cu 300x206 Swarming Mayflies

Swarming Mayflies

Posted 24 May 2010 § Mayflies ‡ Comments (1) °

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