Moth
Location: Burlison, TN
September 23, 2010 9:08 am
This appears to be some sort of hawkmoth, but I am not sure. Can You identify it more specifically?
Signature: Teia Taylor
Pink Spotted Hawkmoth
Hi Teia,
Your Pink Spotted Hawkmoth is one of the widest ranging members of its family in North America.
colorful larva with red spots
Location: southern part of North Carolina
September 24, 2010 7:32 am
This approximately 2-inch-long larva was found crawling in the bathroom of a home in the southern part of North Carolina on September 23rd. Thank you for helping us identify it!
Signature: impressed by biodiversity
Glowworm
Dear Impressed,
You may have been even more impressed had you turned off the lights and watched this Glowworm do what it is best known for, glowing in the dark.
Thank you! It does glow! The glow is very faint, but it is there! Amazing!!
Glowworm Update: Glowing and Food Chain
September 27, 2010
Dear Daniel,
My sister recently sent in a photo of a larva that my daughter found in the bathroom:
Well, we immediately checked to see if it was glowing and it was – very faintly. We then learned that she (yes, it’s a girl glow worm!) should like millipedes and we wondered if she would glow more if she regained her strength. My husband graciously found a small millipede for her for a bedtime snack. She loved it! It was nothing but a pile of shell/rings in the morning. Next we found a BIG millipede. Within an hour the millipede was immobilized and over the past two days the glow worm has been tunneling inside the millipede eating everything but the shell. It is quite gruesome – but fascinating! Anyway, we noticed last night that she seemed to be glowing more – while her head was in the millipede! We pulled her out, but by the time we figured out camera settings, her glow faded. Now, I am happy to announce, that I successfully captured a bit more of her glow this afternoon! Attached are two photos: one of her eating and the other of her glowing.
Thank you for your help.
Awed by God’s creation,
Sherry Lorei
Glowworm eats Millipede
Dear Sherry,
Thank you ever so much for taking the time to send these awesome photos. Though we have other images in our archives of Glowworms glowing, this is the first Food Chain image we have of the remarkable feeding habits of this amazing creature.
Glowworm Glowing
Aquatic insect or larva
Location: Los Angeles, CA
September 23, 2010 8:44 pm
I found this bug hidden in the water under a thick carpet of water lettuce in my pond. It appears to be fully aquatic at this time, but I see four future wings that are probably not all that useful in water.
The pond was visited many times by a red dragonfly. This guy is a bit stubby but I wonder if it’s one if its brood. Surprised it survived (so far) the voracious mosquito fish that live in there.
Thank you!
Signature: Laurentiu
Naiad of a Big Red Skimmer
Dear Laurentiu,
This is certainly a Dragonfly Naiad, and since you saw a red Dragonfly visit your pond, we feel confident identifying your Naiad as that of a Big Red Skimmer, Libellula saturata, based on an excellent drawing by T. Ross that illustrates Charles Hogue’s excellent book Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, a must have for anyone living in Los Angeles. You can buy it at the Museum of Natural History gift store. BugGuide does not recognize the name common name used by Hogue for Libellula saturata and the species is called the Flame Skimmer. In honor of one of the best contemporary insect book authors, we will adhere to Hogue’s terminology.
OMG I hope it doesn’t bite…!
Location: New Paltz, NY
September 23, 2010 3:59 pm
Was about 2-2.5 inches from antenae to back legs. Abdomen was very flat and perpendicular to the glass window it was on. Looking straight down on it, it looked like a large insect from behind with big eyes – markings to fool prey from behind, no doubt… You can zoom pretty far in on photo – decent resolution
Signature: Yeesh that’s cool!
Short Tailed Ichneumon
Dear Yeesh,
This is a Short Tailed Ichneumon in the genus Ophion, which you can verify on BugGuide. Ichneumons are in the same insect order as the bees and wasps, but most do not sting. Not long ago we learned that some Ichneumons are capable of stinging. They are parasitoids, and the female Ophion preys upon caterpillars, generally laying a single egg. According to BugGuide: “Adult Ophion species will hunt for their host caterpillar. Usually one egg is laid per host. Caterpillar usually dies during pupal stage though wasp larva remains to pupate itself.“ BugGuide also indicates that adults are attracted to lights.
Whow!
Location: Osaka, Japan. Urban environment.
September 23, 2010 11:59 am
I was out at the playground with my daughter and she asked me what kind of bug this is. I had to tell her that i had no idea.
I live in Osaka, Japan. This was taken Sept. 22nd at 1:30pm. It was on a fairly hot day. 30 degrees celsius with about 80% humidity.
Hope you guys can help.
Thanks!
Signature: Ajen
Cicada Head
Dear Ajen,
Because of metamorphosis, many creatures have physical transformations that confound the imagination. The pupa is the sedentary stage of transformation between the mobile larva and the often visible and recognizable adult. We are just taking a guess that this might be the pupa of a Lady Beetle, erroneously but popularly called a Lady Bug. Perhaps one of our readers will have an opportunity to scour the internet to verify or refute our suspicions.
Correction
Got it. That’s the head of a cicada. I’m looking at a specimen we have here at the nature center, and I’m sure of it. Though I don’t know what kind of cicada.
Vince
Rum Village Nature Center
cicada head
Location: Indiana
September 24, 2010 3:00 pm
The mystery pupa that someone sent is actually a cicada head. Here’s a pic I just took, showing the cicada head still attached to a cicada.
Signature: Vince
Cicada Head
Thanks for the correction Vince. We feel a bit foolish, but we didn’t even enlarge the image this morning and we were in a rush to get to work, so we just plain didn’t look too closely.
butterfly
Location: toledo,ohio
September 23, 2010 9:15 pm
dear bugman my boyfriend and i went to a butterfly house and i took this photo of a real bonita i was wondering if u can tell me its species thank you beverly green aka the bugwhisperer
Signature: the bugwhisperer
Green Banded Peacock
Dear Beverly the bugwhisperer,
We did a web search of “green swallowtail butterfly pavilion” and we quickly identified your Green Peacock, Papilio palinurus, on the Butterfly Pavilion website which has this short entry: “Southeast Asia Camouflaged underneath, this butterfly displays bright green bands when it opens its wings.“ Wikipedia calls it the Emerald Swallowtail.
Green Banded Peacock
insect i.d.
Location: Shelbyville, IN Midwest
September 22, 2010 1:57 pm
i have a green stinkgug-monarch butterfly-very tiny caterpillar-black hard shelled thin lined shape in the middle-where can i find scientific names 4 these? My son has a science project on insects.
Signature: Thank you, Amy McClellan
Dear Amy,
With all due respect, we will not do your child’s homework, nor should you. We are not in the habit of giving parenting advice, but we recommend that you have your son search our archives using our search engine, or visit BugGuide to research his own answers. It is better that he fail now than later in life when there is no one available to do his work for him.
WTB Saves Our Vacation!
Stinging Flannel Moth Caterpillar
WTB Saves Our Vacation!
September 23, 2010
Hello Daniel,
(I’ve tried to send this note before, so ignore it if you’ve received an earlier version.)
In February of this year, my wife and I visited Isla Mujeres, an island just off Cancun. I was thrilled when my wife discovered a caterpillar on the Sea Grape hedge near our hotel. But something about it seemed familiar, and threatening.
Sure enough, I was recalling a WTB post a year earlier, February 2009, filled with frightening infomation about this exact species of Flannel Moth caterpillar, on the very same island!
As your fans start dreaming of a vacation in the tropics, I’d like to caution them to be wary of critters they don’t know. My wife wanted to touch this caterpillar, and that could have been real trouble. (I did let her lightly brush her fingers over the ends of the long hairs, but not the nasty shorter bristles.)
Sea Grape is a beautiful and very common shrub/tree there, and is frequently used in landscaping. The local hotel staff doesn’t warn guests, and the caterpillars are attractive, at least to bug-nuts like me and my wife.
The caterpillars were in the later stages of development when we were there in mid-February, and some were spinning their cocoons. It may be that there are several generations in the course of a year, so be on guard whenever you’re there. They are wonderful subjects for photos, and they’re not going to attack you. It’s look-but-don’t-touch.
Thank you WTB for your excellent work, and for saving our vacation!
Don J. Dinndorf
St. Augusta, MN
Stinging Flannel Moth Caterpillar
Dear Don,
We did not receive your previous emails, or we overlooked them, so we are very happy you resent. We are also pleased to hear our humble service was able to contribute to your pleasant vacation. The stinging Mexican Flannel Moth Caterpillar in the genus Megalopyge, which has been documented on our website in the past, might be one of the worst stinging caterpillars in the world. Your excellent photos are greatly appreciated and we hope we are able to help other tourists to Mexico and Central America with this information.
Stinging Flannel Moth Caterpillar spins cocoon
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