Bug with fork head
Location: Southwest Florida
September 25, 2010 4:04 pm
I live in Southwest Florida. I found this bug on my porch, but I can’t seem to find anything on the internet about it. It is long like a dragonfly with clear wings and its head looks like it has a dinner fork attached to it. I’m just curious what it is.
Signature: Gaston
Antlion
Hi Gaston,
This sure looks like the silhouette of an Antlion to us.
Large Color Children’s Books
September 25, 2010 3:59 pm
Hi,
In July 2007 Sunset Magazine there is a photo of Lisa Anne and Daniel with what looks like a large color picture book of bugs, perhaps it is for young pre-reading children? I was wondering what it is Title and Author, or your recommendation for a good bug book for children.
Thank you.
Signature: Susie Claxton
Sunset Magazine July 2007
Hi Susie,
The book in the photograph is Living Jewels by Poul Beckmann. It is not a book for children, but rather a coffee table book of incredible photographs of beetles with almost no text. Years ago, the Golden Guide to Insects by Herbert S. Zim, Ph.D. & Clarence Cottam, Ph.D. with Illustrations by James Gordon Irving was a popular book. It seems is it out of print, but we did locate the Golden Book of Insects and Spiders by Saurence P. Pringle and illustrated by James Spence which may be the newest version of this excellent book for youngsters.
red-eyed vireo with mouthful
Location: West Bath, Maine coastal
September 24, 2010 10:57 am
Hi there, Would you kindly tell me what this Red-eyed vireo has captured for a meal? Thanks in advance for your time. I love your site and promote it every chance I get.
Signature: Robin Robinson
Red Eyed Vireo eats Leaf Footed Bug
I think Assassin Bug. Yes? Thanks RRR
Hi Robin,
This insectivore has captured a Leaf Footed Bug in the genus Leptoglossus, possibly the Western Conifer Seed Bug.
Is this a known species?
Location: East Coast of FL (Plam bay, FL 32908)
September 25, 2010 3:13 pm
I found this grasshopper looking bug on my patio. Viewed from the top it looks just like a Shrimp! and its back end is interesting because it has a 1/2-3/4 in stinger pertruding out its rear. it has no wings, very squishy underside and hard shell on the top. I hope you can help me identify it. I’ve sent it off to a friend who is going to have a professor look at it and try to identify it in a lab. My camera is not very good at taking close up pictures. I do have a video though of it if you wanted more detail. let me know if you want the video.
Signature: Angela Efinger
Conehead
Hi Angela,
This is a female Conehead Katydid in the genus Belocephalus. According to BugGuide, they are: “Usually associated with small palms, including saw and cabbage palmettos” and they have “been observed eating palm fronds.”
Monochamus carolinensis?
Location: Madera County, California
September 24, 2010 11:26 pm
This awesome beetle flew into my chest today (9/24/2010), bounced off and into my camera bag. Luckily, I already had the camera out. I believe this to be Monochamus carolinensis but I am unable so far to determine the range of this beetle in any of the books we have nor on the internet.
Note: The beetle was encouraged to climb onto a feather I found nearby when it came time to close up the camera bag sans beetle.
We live in Raymond, California (Madera County) at around 1100 feet elevation. The terrain is oak savanna, with a good population of gray pine.
Signature: Megan Ralph
Sawyer
Hi Megan,
While we believe you are correct that this is a Sawyer in the genus Monochamus, we do not believe it to be Monochamus carolinensis. Rather, we believe it may be Monochamus obtusus, a species represented on BugGuide from a single sighting in Oregon.
Thank you so much for the reply! The link you provided does look a lot more like the individual I saw. I sure appreciate your help and great web site.
Megan
catepillar
Location: Kanto Plain, Japan
September 25, 2010 6:10 am
Hello, we live on a military base in Japan and I found a bunch of these guys snacking on my Impatiens. THey were passing up the begonias…but the impatiens were stripped clean. Any ideas?
Signature: Michelle
Impatiens Hornworm
Hi Michelle,
We had spent considerable time trying somewhat unsuccessfully to conclusively identify your Hornworm Caterpillar in the family Sphingidae, moths commonly called Hawkmoths or Sphinx Moths, before our search ended with a match that satisfies us. Your specimen somewhat resembles a dark morph of the caterpillar of the species Hippotion rosetta which we located on a Sphingidae of Japan website. There are better images of the caterpillar on the Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic website, but the yellow bands visible on your specimen are not represented in the photos on that site. There are four other species in the genus listed on the Sphingidae of Japan website, but several do not include photos of the caterpillars. The caterpillar of Hippotion boerhaviae pictured on the Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic website was another possibility. The Bedstraw Hawkmoth, Hyles gallii, is a wide ranging species with a highly variable caterpillar and it is native to Japan as evidenced by its inclusion in the Sphingidae of Japan website, and that caterpillar also shares some similar traits with your specimen. Then we found an exact match to your caterpillar, listed only as the Impatiens Hawk Moth Caterpillar on Flickr, but alas, there was no scientific name. We became excited because the plant in your photo is an impatiens. That thread led us to the Natural Japan website where we found the scientific name of the Impatiens Hawkmoth to be Theretra oldenlandiae. We then headed back to the Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic website and found an exact match to your caterpillar with another common name of Taro Hornworm. Matching images of caterpillars can also be found on the Sphingidae of Japan website.
Impatiens Hornworm
Catapiller
Location: St Marys Ohio 45885
September 24, 2010 8:51 pm
I found this catapiller last weekend and I can’t find what kind it is or what kind of butterfly/moth it will make?
Signature: Pat Striff
Achemon Sphinx Caterpillar
Hi Pat,
Just last week we posted another photo of this particular color morph of the caterpillar of an Achemon Sphinx, Eumorpha achemon, which we had identified on Bill Oehlke’s website Sphingidae of the Americas. Your caterpillar will metamorphose into a lovely Hawkmoth. Your photo nicely illustrates the caudal bump where typically the caudal horn is situated on most Hornworms, a common name given to the caterpillar of Hawkmoths. Many of the species in the genus Eumorpha shed their caudal horns in the early instar stages of the caterpillar so the mature caterpillar is hornless.
Thank YOU sooo much for YOUR response.
I got several shots of this caterpillar and even got a movie of it on my camera. It was moving rather quickly across the road.
Now I will look up the Hawkmoth and see what it looks like.
Again thank you.
Gulf Fritillary
Location: Suburb North of Atlanta, GA
September 24, 2010 8:43 am
My son noticed this orange and black spiked caterpillar on our way into the zoo yesterday. After recently becoming alerted to the stinging power of certain spiked/barbed caterpillars like the saddleback from your site, I cautioned the kiddos not to touch this guy. I didn’t think I recalled seeing him on the list of stinging butterflies-to-be but caution never stung anyone. Sadly I did not have my real camera with me, but my phone grabbed an image I was later able to identify, I think, as the Gulf Fritillary.
Thanks to you guys when we also encountered a Sycamore Tussock inside the zoo I did know it was harmless. After much reassurance to my friend that I *knew* it was safe, I was then able to assist her young son in gently petting him.
I noticed you have many pictures of the Gulf Fritillary butterfly but not many of the pretty orange caterpillar. Maybe these will be of interest.
Signature: Resa
Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar
Hi Resa,
Thanks so much for adding to our archive again by filling in a species that didn’t get much recent documentation. We probably haven’t posted an image of a Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar since before our major site overhaul and migration over two years ago.
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