Miffed Mantis
Location: Houston
January 25, 2011 11:53 am
I would like to start by saying that I first discovered your site in 2004 when tryng to identify a spider found in our backyard (turned out to be a green lynx feasting on a leaf footed bug)and your site helped to start and sustain our family as self described ”insect seekers” ever since. While I have not posted in quite a while, I still visit your site at least once a month (my son on the other hand still posts photos and questions quite frequently)
I found this guy (or gal) in my shed hanging out under my planting table. The dog seeed very interested in him, and not wanting my pooch to inadvertantly harm this fella, i shooed him (the mantis) out with a broom. Needless to say he was not happy with this sudden eviction. Once outside, he whips around, throws his arms up and makes this strange hiss-like sound (kinda freaked out the dog)so I go in, grab my camera, and poke at him trying to get him to do it again (with my ”brave” dog hiding behind me). He does, but this time gives me the added bonus of his colorful rear end. I decided to leave him be, I figure I wouldn’t be happy if someone had rudely evicted me either. He hung around the door for the next couple hours, then after i had gone inside for lunch, came back out and he had decided to take back his home under my bench. That was 3 monthes ago, and he is still there! We live in Katy tx, a suburb of Houston so the climate is not too bad in the wi nter, plus my shed is heated. I don’t bother him, he doesn’t bother me, and my dog is a real weenie, so we all get along just fine.
Thanks for putting up with my long winded letter, and thanks also for helping teach us that just because some of earths creatures are smaller than us, doesn’t mean they are any less significant.
Signature: Tony F
Mantis in Threat Posture
Dear Tony,
Thanks so much for your passionate missive. We love hearing about our reader’s fascination with bugs. Try as we might, we are having difficulty identifying this mantis in this awesome threat posture. This pose is characteristic of the Mediterranean Mantis, Iris oratoria, but if you compare the images on BugGuide to your photo, you see that the wing markings are different and that dark spot on the ventral surface between the raptoreal front legs of your specimen is not visible in this BugGuide photo. Your specimen is also quite different from this California Mantis pictured on BugGuide, but the upper wings are patterned similarly to this closely related Carolina Mantis, Stagmomantis carolina, pictured on BugGuide, and we wonder if perhaps that might be the correct species. Your photo is quite wonderful and your interactions with this magnificent creature are quite heartwarming.
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Costa Rican Geometrid/Bad-wing? Moth by La Paz Waterfall Garden
Location: Costa Rica
January 23, 2011 12:54 am
Hi. I shot a photo of a moth last May (May 10, 2010) of a moth which reminded me of a geometrid in shape,or very similar to a Dyspteris but with metallic Blue/Green forewing and black hindwing. The trailing edge of all 4 wings is cream colored. The body is ”fuzzy” and orange and the antennae are whiplike, not feathery. It was located on a railing near a light close to where I was eating breakfast on the ”Orchid Terrace” Restaurant. The surrounding environs were open field and secondary cloud forest with an altitude of about 1400-1600 meters above sea level. I was at La Paz Waterfall Gardens. Their Lat and Long are:Latitude 10.12.6.28 N
Longitude 84.9.41.23 W
Signature: Joyous C, Long Island, NY
Unknown Moth from Costa Rica
Dear Joyous,
We haven’t the time to research this at the moment, but perhaps one of our readers will provide an answer and comment while we are at work today.
Black ants – Orange ringed abdomen & feelers
Location: New Zealand
January 23, 2011 12:42 am
Hello there Bugman. These two (obviously male & female) are the unidentified bugs. Found 400m from New Brighton beach, Christchurch, NZ on a tree.
Signature: Skunkwerx
Mating Beetles
Dear Skunkwerx,
These are Beetles, not Ants, and judging by the antennae, they are Longhorn Beetles in the family Cerambycidae. We did locate a similar looking species identified as Obrida fascialis, the One Banded Longicorn Beetle, on the Brisbane Insect website, but a web search of images with that scientific name brought up lots of images of fingernails and other human body parts and photographs of Nicole Kidman and Beyonce, leading us to believe something is terribly amiss with that identification. We hope our readers will have time to unravel this mystery while we are at work.
Dragonfly Species??
Location: Buxton, Maine USA
January 24, 2011 1:17 pm
I found this dragonfly in my mother’s garden in Buxton, Maine USA. I looked through all the dragonfly posts you had on this site but could not find one that looked just like it. Can you identify the species? Thank you!
Signature: Cheryl Mitchell
Darner
Hi Cheryl,
It seems whenever we attempt to identify a Dragonfly, someone writes in to correct us. For some reason, Dragonflies are a real identification challenge for us. We believe this is a Darner in the family Aeshnidae. See BugGuide for the species possibilities.
Darner
Bug identification
Location: Raumati Beach, North Island, New Zealand
January 24, 2011 8:06 pm
Found this floating/swimming in a rainwater filled pot plant saucer in the back garden. It’s about 5 cm long from tip to tail. Wondering what it is.
Signature: Regards, Karen
Rattailed Maggot
Hi Karen,
This is the larva of the Drone Fly and it is commonly called a Rattailed Maggot.
Giant Beetle
Location: Nayarit, Mexico
January 24, 2011 9:55 pm
Nice site! I do enjoy reading it!
We were drinking beer at a wedding reception in Nayarit when we saw this huge, cool beetle crawling around on the ground. I invited it onto my hand where it stood for a bit before flying away.
It was brownish and shimmery, and very well-mannered in spite of our revelry. What kind of beetle is it?
Signature: Fred
Elephant Beetle
Hi Fred,
We are going to tell you the same thing we tell our photo students: “Don’t be afraid of your subject. Move in closer.” We believe this is a female Elephant Beetle, Megasoma elephas. The male is even larger and has magnificent horns. We found a photo on a UK Reptile Forum that shows a size comparison of the male and female Elephant Beetle.
At the American Museum of Natural History, Gossamer Silk From Spiders – NYTimes.com
January 24, 2011
Because of my interest in arthropods, my daughter sent me this link. I thought you’d love to link to it on your site! There is a nice photo of Golden Orb Weavers from Madagascar, too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/arts/design/23spiders.html?_r=2
Thanks. We have seen this online article before and we had thought we had already linked to it on our site, but we were unable to locate it in the archives. It is now a posting.
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