mating Anisota moths
Location: Fayetteville, NC
May 27, 2011 7:31 am
Found these yesterday on a stump that was also home to some new bird hatchlings. I couldn’t get a dorsal view without disturbing them, but even from the underside, they’re very pretty. Hopefully they finished their business before the mother bird looked up.
Signature: Patrick
Mating Oakworm Moths
Dear Patrick,
Thank you so much for sending in your photo of mating Oakworm Moths in the genus Anisota.
Do you know whats this bug?
Location: Kerman, Iran
May 27, 2011 7:27 am
I find so many of them in our garden.
Thanks
Signature: MNZ
Firebug
Dear MNZ,
This distinctive European Hemipteran is commonly called a Firebug. It is in the Red Bug family Pyrrhocoridae and its scientific name is Pyrrhocoris apterus. We learned on the British Bugs website that it feeds on mallow and limes.
interesting red ’bee’?
Location: west flank of west flank coastal mountains above pescadero, california
May 26, 2011 9:14 pm
found this pollinator on a ceanothus blossom, above pescadero, california. i’ve searched through google without success. can you provide any information? this is purely a curiosity question so there is absolutely no hurry. i am an ardent gardener and am in the early stages of introducing bee hives to our san francisco neighborhood.
thank you!!!
Signature: chris dillon, san francisco, ca.
Solitary Bee
Hi Chris,
We are supposed to be reducing the number of images we need for our presentation at Theodore Payne Foundation tomorrow, and your photo would be an excellent addition. We agree that this is a Solitary Bee, but we haven’t the time this morning to research the species. It sure is a pretty little bee.
Update:
Perhaps this is the Mining Bee, Andrena prima, which is represented on BugGuide from Oklahoma and Arizona.
good morning, daniel!
i’d be delighted to have you use my “red bee” image! i love taking pictures of insects…& being recently retired, i can now do so more attentively. i have a battered, because i’m clumsy(!), little canon power shot camera which suits my purpose very well. i had a wonderful time capturing this image!
she is beautiful!
the red bee was the only one of her type amongs a busy crew of more traditional honeybees and two very loudly buzzing, seemingly irritable & frantic, huge glittering black solitary bees. they were all engaged in harvesting from both fremontia and ceanothus plants/trees. the red bee pictured was much less “vivacious” than her associates. she systematically and thoroughly explored each petal of each flower which she chose to settle upon. i was at yerba buena nursery, a magical native plant resource, which is somewhat isolated on the western flank of the coastal mountains, between santa cruz and san francisco. kathy, the owner, was able to provide info on the black bees.
thank you for your request! i’ll now search for the theodore payne foundation which you mentioned…this retirement life certainly opens many “learning portals”!
chris
Daniel, A native bee on my bush sunflower
Location: South Pasadena, CA
May 27, 2011 2:30 am
At least I think it’s a native bee. It’s not a honey bee, and the flower is a native. As a secondary identification request, I’m curious about what voracious and unseen bug is eating the flowers
Signature: Barbara
Long-Horned Bee
Hi Barbara,
This is a Long-Horned Bee in the tribe Eucerini, but we are not certain of the species. We spent the entire morning editing the presentation for tomorrow, and just when we whittled the images down to the best, you send in this candidate.
Larvae on a Log
Location: Audubon, PA
May 26, 2011 9:16 am
Dear WTB, While I was reorganizing my woodpile, I came across this larvae nest and found it very interesting. I never saw anything like it before. After I took the picture and scraped the nest off of my log, the yellow substance was a really fine powder, kind of like pollen. Do you have any idea what these little worms will turn into?
Signature: Cheryl
Dear Cheryl,
Please forgive us. We absolutely cannot research this tonight. It was a long day (14 hours of teaching, monitoring, attending awards and scholarship presentations, and conducting SLO assessments. The students actually accused us of being grouchy today. The end of the semester is rough. Enough of that. We believe this is a Solitary Bee Nest and we believe the yellow substance is Pollen. Time will tell.
Tiny detritovores
Location: Amani Nature Reserve, Northeast Tanzania
May 26, 2011 8:56 am
These little guys have taken over the forest floor in the last week or two. It’s about two months into the rainy season here, and these tiny white insects have appeared all over the forest floor. They’re almost exclusively on dead plant matter (leaves, logs, dead tree trunks), and it is difficult to convey just how many of these things are out there. I would say that there are several for every dead leaf in the forest. In some areas I don’t see any, in most areas they’re around, and on some leaves or logs they reach remarkable densities.
Signature: Phil
Springtails
Hi Phil,
You sure know how to catch our attention with a subject line. These are Springtails, generally considered the most numerous hexapods on the planet. They are important because they help break down organic matter into humus.
Springtails
We love your entire series of photos which establish the scene, demonstrate scale, and finally, provide a revealing close-up.
Springtails
Beneficial Beetle or Nasty Cockroach???
Location: Las Cruces, NM
May 25, 2011 11:33 pm
Been surfing the web trying to find a match for this guy to no avail. He’s outside my patio door most evenings, although was on the wall in daytime when i took the photo. Kitty plays with him and he makes a squeaky noise in response. Does fly, though not well. It’s almost 2 inches long I think. I’m in Las Cruces, NM. Just not sure if he’s a good guy or a bad guy…
Signature: Shelley
Root Borer
Dear Shelley,
This is a Root Borer in the genus Prionus (see BugGuide), though we are not certain of the species. Because of the larger antennae, it appears to be a male. Some insects are difficult to categorize according to the good/bad binary, and we would just have to state that this Root Borer will not harm your home. Though the larvae bore in the roots of trees, we do not consider them to be an injurious species. This sighting is earlier in the year than we would expect. Most reports come in July.
Thank you so much! I kept looking online last night and was pretty sure it wasn’t a cockroach but still, it’s nice to know he’s not really bad. It’s been pretty warm here (80s-90s for several weeks), so I guess that might be why. I have also been watering my grass/plants daily and he seems to like that. Thanks again
Vicious pincher?
Location: South-Central Pennsylvania
May 25, 2011 8:43 pm
I’ve been finding about one of these a day in my basement bedroom. This beastly-looking thing was captured and tossed back outside in the grass, where I’d rather they stay. I’m not too keen on being pinched or bitten.
I’ve tried ID’ing it through your site, but there are so many different species of beetle, I don’t know where to begin! I live in south-central Pennsylvania. It’s about half an inch long or so, with an obviously large head, tiny thorax and large abdomen. Can they fly? I would assume this is a PA native?
Signature: Dutch Country Girl
Big Headed Ground Beetle
Dear Dutch Country Girl,
This is a Ground Beetle in the genus Scarites. It is most likely Scarites subterraneus, commonly called and aptly named the Big Headed Ground Beetle. You may read more about it on BugGuide where you will find that it is native to your area as well as to much of the continental U.S.
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