black widow with bess beetle
Location: Garner/Raleigh NC
April 28, 2011 6:49 am
Greetings! I don’t often have anything to post, but here’s some shots I took this morning of a black widow spider that lives in a crack in the brick mortar outside the front door of where I work in Garner, NC. I noticed the web some time ago, but couldn’t tell what was in there until it came out to ’web up’ this rather large meal of what I believe to be a Bess beetle. Sure do hope it doesn’t decide to come inside!
I apologize that the one pic of the front came out so blurry, but I had to put the camera down on the ground to take it & couldn’t see the screen. I included it anyway to possibly help identify age, as I know the spots on the back mean it is younger.
Really enjoy checking out your site, and have had many chuckles over some of your replies to those ’challenged’ posters who don’t quite get the spirit of your site. Rock on!
Signature: thank God for macro lens
Black Widow Eats Bess Beetle
Dear tGfml,
We are really impressed with this incredible Food Chain documentation. We agree that the prey is a Bess Beetle, one of the few insects that actually has family values where adults care for and feed larvae. Both adults and larvae are capable of making sounds by stridulation and it is believe that the sounds are a form of communication. BugGuide has a very informative page devoted to this family of interesting beetles. When the Black Widow matures, she will lose all of her red spots and only the red hourglass marking under her abdomen will remain on her otherwise glossy black surface, making her a strikingly distinctive creature. Black Widows are shy, hiding by day, though they can often be found in the open in their webs once darkness falls. Though they are not aggressive spiders, readers should treat Black Widows with respect as their neurotoxic venom is quite potent. Again, BugGuide has a marvelous information page on Widow spiders.
Black Widow eats Bess Beetle
1
New Moth sighting in LA 4-27-11
Location: Los Angeles, CA
April 27, 2011
Hey guys. I have another moth sighting today. May be a variation on the one we talked about last week. Unfortunately this one did not stick around for the mating process. Here is a picture.
I also found this on my house near my willow.
Thanks
Dan
One Eyed Sphinx
Thanks for sending us another photo of a One Eyed Sphinx Dan. We will link to your earlier letter.
Whats this bug
Location: Cancun Mexico
April 27, 2011 4:01 pm
Took this picture in January in Mexico South ofCancun in 2007
Looks like a fly?, Antennae like a butterfly, and weird fuzzy legs….
Very cool though
Signature: Sean
Clearwing Moth from Mexico
Hi Sean,
What a positively gorgeous Clearwing (we know it seems like a misnomer) Wasp Mimic Moth in the family Sesiidae, an interesting group nicely represented on BugGuide. We will try to correctly identify the species for you. Perhaps Karl will give it a shot.
Correction Courtesy of Karl
Hi Daniel and Sean:
Wasp Moth is a somewhat generic term used to describe wasp mimicking moths from several families. This one is actually an Arctiid moth (Erebidae: Arctiinae), Horama plumipes, which ranges throughout Central America and as far north as southern Texas. Regards. Karl
Spring in Full Swing!
Hello Daniel and Lisa,
04-21-11 At first I thought these butterflies were Spring Azures, then maybe Cabbage Whites, but neither of those have scallop-edged wings. Can you help me?
04-22-11 The moths were plentiful this morning on the wall under the safety light, and…watched a bird, think it was an Eastern Phoebe, having a snack or two as it flapped up and down the wall. (no photo available)
04-23-11 This morning, I was told by a couple of very early risers, a raccoon was climbing on that wall, holding on with three paws while scooping the moths into its mouth with the fourth! (again, no photo available :’( )
04-27-11 I believe this is a Bent-line Gray Moth, Iridopsis larvaria…
Hoping your Easter, holiday adventure was safe and happy,
R.G. Marion
Sevier County, TN
Great Smoky Mountains
Courting Orange Tips
Dear R.G.,
We absolutely love your photograph of the positively salacious behavior of the courting OrangeTips. The female has her abdomen raised and she is quite possibly releasing pheromones into the air which have attracted the fluttering male with the sexually dimorphic namesake orange tips. We are uncertain of the species, but an excellent candidate is the Falcate Orangetip, Anthocharis midea, which ranges all around Tennessee and is profiled on bugGuide. It is the only Eastern species profiled on BugGuide. We love this photo so much we are going to feature it.
Wow! Thanx! I’m so pleased that you liked the photo of the “Courting” Orange Tips. I do get lucky once in a while.
Since there hasn’t been a sighting reported in Tennessee according to the link that you included, I was wondering if it is possible that they were blown this way by all the storms we’ve been having here in the Southeast this month? Do things like that happen in the fragile-bug world? Or did I really get lucky? Just curious…
R.G. Marion
Hi Again R.G.,
Since the OrangeTips were reported from all surrounding states, it is fair to assume that they are also found in Tennessee, but that there have just not been any submissions to bugGuide.
What is this bug?
Subject: What is this bug?
Location: Found in cupboard, came out of old egg dying box.
April 24, 2011 6:22 pm
I found this bug when I was getting some old egg dying stuff out it is April in the Spring time. I sat the carboard box on the table and it came crawling out. I put it in a baggie and was trying to find out what it is…no luck. I do hope you guys can help me.
Signature: Miss Rebecca
Pseudoscorpion
Our Automated Response:
Thank you for submitting your identification request.
Please understand that we have a very small staff that does this as a labor of love. We cannot answer all submissions (not by a long shot). But we’ll do the best we can!
Hello,
I am glad to see I recieved an email back so quickly to at least inform me you have noticed I submitted my bug. I do thank you but I actually finally got the research I was looking for and found out what it was. So, please do not feel the need to have to research and send me information. Thank you again for your time and for the great website. It is very interesting to look through it all.
Have a Great Day!
Dear Miss Rebecca,
People don’t usually respond so politely to our automated response. This is a harmless Pseudoscorpion. It is a fierce, though tiny predator. We hope your eggs turned out pretty.
Giant Bug
Location: Greenville,SC
April 27, 2011 1:55 am
I found a giant bug(?) today that looks almost exactly like a root you would find in a garden. Can you identify it?
Signature: Lydia
Bug Root???
Hi Lydia,
We love your photo of a root that resembles an insect.
Root or Bug???
It was a bug, it crawls and everything. You think it’s just a root?
We have no further comment, but we would love to invite our readership to comment.
Root Bug???
9
Jewel bugs from the Philippines
Location: Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines
April 27, 2011 7:39 am
Hello, these were pictures I took of a scutellerid (jewel bug) from the Philippines. They were quite numerous.
Only thing I know about them is that they scutellerid, probably Scutellerinae. They were feeding on Jatropha in our backyard, which doesn’t help narrow it down, LOL. The exact locality I photographed them in is in Bukidnon, Mindanao Island.
I am currently improving Wikipedia’s article on Scutelleridae (yes, I’m a Wikipedian), and I would like to include my photo, haha. Only thing is, it would look a bit out of place being unidentified. Might be a new species *waggles eyebrows*, but then again color patterns can vary even between adults in Scutelleridae heh. Haven’t seen any nymphs sadly, adults are quite large, about an inch in length (excluding antennae) Photos are here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scutelleridae_1.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jewel_bugs_on_a_Gmelina_arborea_leaf.jpg
In terms of body shape, it most resembles Australian Scutiphora. However closest coloration patterns I can find are also all from unidentified scutellerids from nearby islands. Dorsal coloration is predominantly red, with two bands of iridiscent green-gold on the scutellum. The head and anterior part of the thorax are greenish blue. A black strip runs longitudinally in the center of the head from the rostrum.
Photos are licensed under CC-BY so use them in any way you please. Hoping you guys can help, thanks in advance.
Signature: Obsidian Soul
Jewel Bug
Dear Obsidian Soul,
Though we do not recognize your species of Jewel Bug, the photos are quite lovely. Perhaps our readership can provide you with a comment to our posting to assist in your Wikipedia posting.
Jewel Bugs
Strange small bug
Location: Girona, Spain
April 27, 2011 7:05 am
Hi,
I found this bug in my garden.
I have never seen anything like it before, could you let me know what it is & if it’s poisonous?
Signature: Alix
Unknown Insect from Spain
Hi Alix,
We just returned from a holiday and despite our posting a notice that we would not be responding to emails, we are positively swamped with identification requests. We decided to look at the most recent requests and found yours, and this one is a bit of a puzzle for us. We have confessed on numerous occasions that we do not have a background in entomology, and we need to use the internet for much of our research. Judging by the antennae, this sure appears to be a beetle, but we are not sure if it is larval since it doesn’t have wings, or if it is a wingless adult, or if it is something else entirely. Alas, we are also quite busy with our day job and we haven’t the time to research this, but we want to post it in the hopes that one of our readers with more knowledge can provide a comment. We also wrote to our longtime contributor Eric Eaton to see if he can email us an answer.
Unknown Insect from Spain
Eric Eaton Responds
Daniel:
… The bug in the images is probably some kind of mealybug-type thing that has lost much of its usual waxy coating. Pretty big for a scale insect, but I don’t think it can be anything else. Try looking up Pseudococcidae for Spain and see what turns up. …
Eric
I like This
