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Monthly Archives July 2010

Texas Bow-Legged Bug

Stumped!
Location:  South Central TX
July 19, 2010 11:01 pm
I found these two critters outside on a cherry tomato in my garden last week (around July 15th). I mistook them for giant ants at first, but a couple of days after I captured them, the one on the right shed its skin. I suspect they are some type of seed bug, but I can’t find anything that looks just like them online. They each have a single piercing mouthpart. Each insect is approximately 1/2” long.
Elisabeth

texas bowlegged bug elisabeth 300x193 Texas Bow Legged Bug

Texas Bow-Legged Bugs (nymph and imago)

Hi Elisabeth,
We anticipated a potentially lengthy identification search for your True Bugs, but we quickly stumbled upon the Texas Bow-Legged Bug, Hyalymenus tarsatus, one of the Broad-Headed Bugs in the family Alydidae on BugGuide.  BugGuide indicates “Immature stages are ant mimics.“  The specimen on the left in your photograph is an immature nymph.  Of the family, Alydidae, BugGuide indicates:  “All phytophagous” and “Many stink worse than stink bugs, Pentatomidae.”

Posted 20 July 2010 § True Bugs ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Fanmail

Very pleased with the website!
July 19, 2010 9:17 pm
Thank you so much! I’m so pleased with your website, it’s opened my eyes to many things I didn’t know about certain insects which I was often surprised by, but now realise are benificial and/or harmless. I just recently got into studying bugs in what little spare time I have between writing electronic music and working. This website has helped me very much in identifying insects I have never seen before in my area (lots of interesting new insects popping up in Ontario lately that I cannot describe). If I happen to snap some photos of insects that baffle me (some husks and sheddings I have found in the northern parts of Ontario that I have never encountered before especially) I will let you know first hand and hopefully the team here can help us figure out what’s with the crazy and interesting new species I have never encountered before!
Thank you so much again,
yours, Cody J.

Thanks so much for your kind letter Cody.

Posted 19 July 2010 § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

We Got Chickens

July 19, 2010
Last Wednesday, we decided we had waited long enough on the construction of the chicken coop and we were ready for our three hens.  Sam at Verdugo Pet Store in Highland Park, Los Angeles, had some 6 1/2 week old Aracauna hens for $4.50 each.  We saw them just before leaving for Ohio last month and they were just peeps.  They grew into attractive adolescents.  I bought a gold one, a brown one and a brown one with a gold head so I could tell them apart.

chicken coop 20100714 cropped 300x207 We Got Chickens

The Chicken Coop with 3 resident Aracauna hens

The chicken coop was completed earlier in the week.  The locks on the three screen doors were a big challenge.  There is an upper floor composed of two lofts with a perch between them.  When my hens are large enough, the nest boxes will go there.  the back of the coop has two small holes currently covered with screen that will eventually become the egg doors when needed.  There are three screen doors on the coop, each made from a picture frame, including the shattered pieces from a piece of Vacillation art dating to 1992 that was a casualty of the great 1994 earthquake.  I need to tile the top of the converted work table so the chickens don’t get wet when it rains.

chickens 20100714 300x187 We Got Chickens

Two of the Hens their first afternoon in the coop: 14 July 2010

I continued to work on the chicken yard over the next few days, eventually surrounding their area with a two foot high fence all around.  Then I went over all but the final side with four foot chicken wire before I ran out.  I need to buy more from Verdugo Hardware Store on Eagle Rock Boulevard.  I have to figure out how to make a door too.  This is all quite imperative since the little gals are starting to go airborne.  I need to take them to Sam to have him clip their wings.  I also extended the fence for the chicken run to include the compost pile.

chickens 20100716 cropped 300x219 We Got Chickens

My three Aracauna fledgling hens in the compost pile: 16 July 2010

Posted 19 July 2010 § Fuzzy Bottom Gals ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Hanging Thief feeds upon Thread-Waisted Wasp

Mortal Kombat
Location:  Gloucester Twp, Camden County, NJ
July 19, 2010 3:11 pm
This brutal assault was in our front yard. The amber winged-warrior was the perched assailant, snatching its ill-fated victim from mid-flight.
We’d like to know what they are. Research suggests the Amber is Ophion Luteus, a parasitic wasp, while the other seems to be Ammophilia procera or possibly even Ammophila conditor? The tail marking seems to suggest the latter, though sites indicate this is a little known or observed wasp (if correct).
Chris

hanging thief eats wasp chris 300x262 Hanging Thief feeds upon Thread Waisted Wasp

Hanging Thief devours Wasp

Hi Chris,
This magnificent predator is a Robber Fly in the genus Diogmites, a group known as the Hanging Thieves because of the way they often hang from a single foot while devouring their prey, exactly as your fabulous photographs demonstrate.  We do not feel confident identifying this Hanging Thief to the species level, but you can view BugGuide for additional details.  We believe you may be correct on the Wasp identification.  It sure does look like one of the Thread-Waisted Wasps in the genus Ammophila based on images posted to BugGuide, but again, we do not feel confident taking the identification to the species level.

hanging thief eats wasp chris 2 300x260 Hanging Thief feeds upon Thread Waisted Wasp

Hanging Thief consumes Thread-Waisted Wasp

Posted 19 July 2010 § Robber Flies § Wasps and Hornets ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Owlfly

Owlfy?
Location:  Grand Prairie, TX
July 19, 2010 6:43 pm
I found this bug resting on a bamboo support I use for my tomato plants. I live near Dallas, TX and found it at approximately 9:00 AM July 19, 2010. It held very still for its picture.
Ruth Gilgenbach

owlfly ruth 300x118 Owlfly

Owlfly

Hi Ruth,
Your identification of an Owlfly is absolutely correct.  In our opinion, it is in the genus Ululodes, based on the divided compound eyes.

Posted 19 July 2010 § Neuropterans: Lacewings, Antlions, and Owlflies ‡ Comments (0) °

Golden Buprestid

Golden Buprestid – a real beauty!
July 14, 2010
Hi there,
I figured out what this lovely beetle is from your site, but wanted to share the photo anyway. This Golden Buprestid was in the forest of the Oregon Coast Range and really shone in the sun! (along with the skin on my hand)
Thanks for this great resource.
Chandra L., Eugene, Oregon
near Alsea, Oregon

golden buprestid chandra1 300x247 Golden Buprestid

Golden Buprestid

Hi Chandra,
Your letter arrived as we were working on the final pass of our book pages, and we did not get to post many letters.  We remembered the subject line and we have been searching the unanswered mail to find you letter.  We are happy the photograph is so nice and that our search was worth the effort.  Thanks for sending us your photo of a Golden Buprestid.  We are happy you were able to identify it on our site and thanks for all your compliments.  Now that we have found and posted your letter, we are going out into the garden to care for our new Aracauna hens.

Posted 19 July 2010 § Beetles ‡ Comments (3) °

Small Magpie Moth

Small Magpie Moth, top & bottom
Jul 16, 2010
Location:  Edmonds, Washington
Hi Daniel, a few days ago I sent these 2 pics to you asking for ID help (I think I called it a butterfly at that time). I finally got lucky on BugGuide and have identified it as Eurrhypara hortulata, Small Magpie Moth, an alien species in the U.S. from Eurasia. I did not see that you had any pics of this moth so thought I’d resubmit them to you (with the ID this time). Hope they are useful. It is very small but rather a pretty little thing. What amazes me are the spikes on the legs, which I did not notice until I looked at the photos on my computer. I did let the moth go after taking the pictures because I did not know whether it was friend or foe to my organic garden, but didn’t feel good keeping it in the jar too long. I have seen several of these over the past 2 months, in my garden, which is where I caught this moth on July 10th.
By the way, I really like your new format, especially the links across the top instead of having to scroll down and down thru interesting but already-read material. Very nice!
Cheers, Dee

small magpie moth dee 300x204 Small Magpie Moth

Small Magpie Moth

Hi Dee,
Thanks so much for taking the time to resubmit your images with an identification.  We have been very busy lately and we are intolerably behind in responding to identification requests.  As always, we are only able to answer a small fraction of the mail we receive.  This past week has included several personal and professional commitments that have further impacted our ability to write back to people.  We needed to spend July 15 working on the final pass of the designed pages of the book, and that needed to be submitted by Friday morning.  To further complicate our lives, we bought three young Aracauna hens, seven weeks old, to put in the chicken coop we have been building this summer.  We have been spending time with our chickens when we could be typing on the computer, but somehow, the outdoors is so much more appealing right now.  There might soon be a chicken blog on WTB? as well as the Aquarium blog.  We stumbled across your letter while searching through some backlogged mail because we were trying to locate a letter with a Golden Buprestid subject line that we did not open, and your letter was a pleasant surprise.  We are thrilled to post these images of a Small Magpie Moth, Eurrhypara hortulata, and we will link to the BugGuide information page on the species.

small magpie moth under dee 300x208 Small Magpie Moth

Small Magpie Moth

P.S.  Thanks for the compliment on the new website format.  Our webmaster has been working overtime making things more efficient.

Small Magpie Moth – and your hens
Daniel, Glad you found the pics of interest.  I know you folks are busy, so I didn’t mind resubmitting, especially since I didn’t need ID help anymore and didn’t want you to waste time when you got around to it.  Congrats on acquiring your chickens…Blue Eggs and Ham??  Now you won’t be the only ones at your house that are interested in bugs… but seriously, that’s really nice.  Our town just this winter okayed letting people keep a few hens, so maybe some day.  If you blog about them, I’ll be interested to follow your experiences.  Cheers, Dee

OK Dee,
I think it is time for the Official WTB? Mt. Washington, Los Angeles Blog with subcategories of aquaria and chickens as well as the few insects I have actually photographed myself on the WTB? website.

Posted 19 July 2010 § Moths ‡ Comments (0) °

Possibly a Mosquito not being repelled

Is this a skeeter or what??
Location unknown
July 19, 2010
In the grocery store recently, I found a little flying critter sitting on, yes, a bottle of mosquito repellent. It was too funny and I had to take a pic! But I went online later to look at mosquito pictures, and none of them look like this fella. Can you tell me what it actually is?
Amused but confused
Thanks,
Alice

mosquito on repellent alice 296x300 Possibly a Mosquito not being repelled

Is that a Mosquito on the Mosquito Repellent???

Hi Alice,
Sadly, we do not have a conclusive answer for you, but we are also terribly amused by the possibility that this might be a Mosquito on the bottle of repellent.  Judging by the antennae, it might be a male, and male Mosquitoes do not bite.  It might also be a Midge.  At any rate, we are cropping out the product name in your photo in an effort to not compromise product sales.

2

Posted 19 July 2010 § Midges § Mosquitos ‡ Comments (1) °

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