What is this caterpiller?
June 13, 2010
We found this caterpiller while hiking at amicollola Falls, georgia.It was brightly colored teal and brown and alsoa little agressive. Please help identify. I cannot find anywhere.
Stacy Miles
North georgia
Abbott's Sphinx Caterpillar
Hi Stacy,
This is one of several color variations, known as morphs, for the caterpillar of the Abbott’s Sphinx, Sphecodina abbottii, a species that is profiled on BugGuide.
Blue spiky fiddle bug with red shoes and feelers
June 13, 2010
This bug caught my attention because it was blue and red against white vinyl siding. (Cheering for USA in the World Cup?)
The metal spikes and two blood red eyeballs on its abdomen make for an evil-looking insect, but it looked more lost than anything.
Photos taken at 5:30pm, 11 June 2010.
Maybe he has a bright idea?
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Leaf Footed Bug Nymph: Acanthocephala species
This is an immature Leaf Footed Bug or Big Legged Bug in the family Coreidae. Often immature insects are difficult to identify to the species level because they change in appearance as they grow. We have located a similar looking, also unidentified nymph on BugGuide, and that specimen was from Louisiana. The person who submitted the photo was raising the nymphs in a terrarium, and there was some serial commentary, but there is no indication that they were ever properly identified.
Leaf Footed Bug Nymph
We have posted a comment on the BugGuide page to inquire if the nymph was ever correctly identified.
Leaf Footed Bug Nymph
Update: Acanthocephala species
We received a comment from lttlechkn question if this might be the nymph of Acanthocephala terminalis. This is a good possibility, but the match to Acanthocephala declivis seems even close, based on a photo, also from Georgia, that is posted to BugGuide.
Yellow Fly
June 12, 2010
Hi, I have found half a dozen of these bright yellow flies on my rose bush. They are just sitting upside down on the stems. The fly is about 1/2 inch long. I have never seen this fly before do you have any ideas? I live in East Anglia in England and it is a lovely summers day. I hope the pics are good enough for you to identify! By the way I love your site. 
Tanya
England
Large Rose Sawfly
Hi Tanya,
This was a very easy ID for us, because last week we received a photo of the same species from UK. We knew it was a Sawfly, but we were not sure of the species. Once we provided the querant, Richard Avery, with that information, he wrote back with a species identification of Arge pagana, the Large Rose Sawfly.
Hi Daniel,
Thank you very much for your reply and link to Richard’s query. I hope they wont cause too much damage to my roses!
Many thanks
Tanya
Mutant Bug!
June 12, 2010
So we have seen this huge, mutant looking bug on the driveway 2 times now, and once at the gas station. We have no clue what it is but he is HUGE! If I had to ball park it, I would say it is atleast the size of my thumb from base to tip of fingernail! The bug is very slow moving and has these huge pincher looking things on his head. We have no idea where he lives, if there are more, or if he is harmful to humans and pets. Thank you for any insight you can offer!
Kim
Hoschton, GA
Male Eastern Hercules Beetle
Hi Kim,
This is a male Eastern Hercules Beetle, Dynastes tityus, the heaviest North American Beetle. He is harmless to humans and pets. Just yesterday we posted an image of a female Eastern Hercules Beetle from Tennessee. Females lack the horns.
2″ LONG BLACK & YELLOW CASING WITH BUG EMERGING
June 9, 2010
Hi I live in Perthshire, Scotland and have just found this “thing” in my garden. The casing isnt like a chrysalis its too smooth and very very narrow – the colours are black with yellow stripes. Any Ideas??
Kay
Perthshire, Scotland
Thing from Scotland
Hi Kay,
Please provide more information. Where was this thing found? Underground? Inside a stump? On a branch? Underwater? Perhaps someone with recognize this thing and write in to us.
Thing from Scotland
The photo of the Mystery bug in Scotland looks like the dried up tail of some kind of flying insect, like a damselfly, dragonfly or even like a grasshopper. The post didn’t seem to have any responses so I just wanted to add my thoughts.
Daniel Fagan
Update from Karl
June 14, 2010
Hi Daniel and Kay:
I was initially unconvinced that this was actually an animate object, but it looks like it could be the abdomen of a female Golden-ringed Dragonfly (Cordulegaster boltonii). It looks very similar and the species does occur in Scotland. I haven’t checked out all of the possibilities, but this looks pretty close to me. Here is another example: http://www.brocross.com/dfly/species/boltonii.htm. Regards. Karl
Pseudo-scorpion?
June 11, 2010
I found this bug under my husband’s work shirt in the laundry room. At first I thought it was a tiny spider. After I saw the claws, I thought it was some type of tick. I think it’s a pseudo-scorpion. My question is, are there more? Do you think it could have carried itself in on my husbands shirt or do you think there could be a family living nearby?
Thanks for any info you can provide.
Kathy
Northeastern Ohio, June 10, 2010
Pseudoscorpion
Hi Kathy,
Pseudoscorpions are not social creatures. They are solitary hunters, but we would wager this Pseudoscorpion has siblings somewhere.
Pseudoscorpion
Is this the kind of scorpian that can kill people?
June 10, 2010
Hello WTB,
This morning I found that one of my sticky traps caught a scorpian. But because it is so small and the light colored one I was concerned after reading through your web site index that it may be the bad kind that can kill people. Can you please verify the speciecs, what I should do with it, and is the sting harmful to my dog and cat as well? Thank you!
Amanda in West TX
Near El Paso
Bark Scorpion Perhaps???
Dear Amanda,
We have always understood that Scorpions with small pedipalps, which Scorpions are able to use as hands, and large tails are the most dangerous. Your Scorpion fits that description. We tried to match it so the images on BugGuide, but we don’t feel comfortable beyond the genus level, and even that is dicey. Our guess is family Buthidae, genus Centruroides, the Bark Scorpions. Sadly, your photo does not show the shape of the sternum. According to BugGuide: “The family Buthidae is easily recognized by the almost triangular sternum. The sternum is located on the underside just before the pectines (combs).“ The coloration of your specimen does not seem consistent with the description on BugGuide for the Striped Bark Scorpion, Centruroides vittatus, which is indicated as: “two broad stripes down back, with orange bars on each tergite (dorsal plate); hands and fifth metasoma (tail) segment are darker, especially in young and freshly molted specimens; broad stripe on the back of the tail.“ The Striped Bark Scorpion seems the likeliest candidate to us, but we would relish the opinion of an expert in Scorpion identification.
Striped Bark Scorpion maybe???
The defensive posture in your other photo is very interesting. It seems the Scorpion has retracted its pedipalps to protect its head. We alluded earlier to Scorpions using their pedipalps as hands. The mating activity of Scorpions, which we have only read about, but never seen, is called a Pas de Deux or Dance for Two. The male and female grasp one another by the pedipalps and move around the area as though dancing until the male finds a favorable place to deposit his sperm. He then guides the female to his gift of life.
Comment
did you free the scorpion?
steiv
Lunar Bug??
June 10, 2010
I got this picture from my niece and I came on to see if it was a Lunar Bug but you had no information for it. So I thought I would send you the picture. This was taken in Maine.
Take care Carol
Maine
Luna Moth
Hi Carol,
Your Lunar Bug is a Luna Moth. Each year we like to document the first Luna Moth sighting we get from Maine as an indication of what is happening with the weather. We generally get the first Luna Moth images of the year in February from Florida.
Letter from Tiffany
June 11, 2010
Luna Moth in WI
Hi,
I want to thank you for your wonderful website! I have been looking at your pictures of Luna Moths for years and was SO excited when I finally saw one here in Wisconsin last week! It was the most beautiful insect I have ever seen and I knew exactly what it was, thanks to you!!
Tiffany
We are envious Tiffany. Despite growing up in Ohio, we have never seen a living Luna Moth in the wild, and now that we are in California, there is not much chance. Next week we will be in Ohio for a week, and we hope we are lucky enough to see a Luna Moth.
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