funny bright yellow bug
Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
June 21, 2011 8:16 pm
hello there, i love the your facebook blog and scoured thru your website to find this bug before posting.
I found perched on top of one of my swiss chard plants, and then finally stayed on the green beans till the end of the day. I’m in the garden all the time, but have never seen one of these things. It’s super thin, and was about two inches long. My first reaction (while picking green beans) was ”what a strange bug, I hope it’s beneficial?!” after taking the pictures i noticed it is missing one of the back legs. I watched it for a long time, but it never did anything. I hope you can help, would hate to find out that i should have removed this bug.
Thanks
Signature: Beneficial Bug Lover
Yellow Oblong Winged Katydid
Dear Beneficial Bug Lover,
This is a Katydid, and while most Katydids are green in color, there are occasionally pink mutations or color variations as well as even rarer colors like yellow. We found a matching image on BugGuide that is identified as an Oblong Winged Katydid, Amblycorypha oblongifolia. We will check with Katydid expert Piotr Naskrecki to see if he can verify our identification, however, he may be on summer break and unavailable right now.
Piotr Naskrecki responds
Hi Daniel,
This indeed looks like A. oblongifolia.
Cheers,
Piotr
What is this bug?
Location: San Diego California
June 21, 2011 11:12 pm
Hi, I was wondering if you could identify this catipillar
Signature: Robert Ramirez
Nevada Buck Moth Caterpillar
Hi Robert,
This is now the third report we have gotten in the past few weeks that there are unusually large numbers of Nevada Buck Moth Caterpillars, Hemileuca nevadensis, in the San Diego area this year. See here and here for additional photos and information. Please do not handle Nevada Buck Moth Caterpillars or any related species as the spines can cause a nasty contact dermatitis.
Trichiotinus assimilis I think… Flower Scarab
Location: Winnipeg MB
June 21, 2011 10:19 pm
Hi there Daniel. Finally have a buggy I think is worth sharing. This cute little flower scarab was inhabiting the Cut-leaf Anemones in my prairie wildflower garden last night/this morning. A great little bumblebee mimic! Noticed you only had one picture of these guys, from 2005, so here’s another one to update your archives.
Signature: bugophile in Winnipeg
Hairy Flower Scarab
Dear bugophile,
Thanks so much for sending us this image of a Hairy Flower Scarab. We took the liberty of lightening the image and cropping it to better feature the beetle. BugGuide does not have much information on the species page for Trichiotinus assimilis, so we are linking to the genus page on BugGuide should any of our readers desire more information on this interesting bumblebee mimic.
What is this bug?
Location: Sydney, Australia
June 22, 2011 12:11 am
Hi there,
I got this bug off a leaf in a garden in winter in Sydney Australia. I was wondering if you knew what it was?
Signature: MargotG
Small Blue Leaf Beetle
Dear MargotG,
This is a Leaf Beetle in the family Chrysomelidae, and it can be further classified as a Flea Beetle in the tribe Alticini. We believe we have correctly identified it as a Small Blue Leaf Beetle, Nisotra breweri, on the Insects of Brisbane Website. You did not indicate which plant you found the Small Blue Leaf Beetle upon, and the Insects of Brisbane website indicates it is found on Wild Tobacco. Interestingly, the hairy leaf that you photographed your individual upon looks very much like the leaves represented in the photos on the website we cited.
Thankyou so much for identifying the flea beetle! The leaf was from a chinese lantern bush! Interesting!!!
Many Thanks
Margot
firefly flashing
June 21, 2011 10:57 pm
Dear Bugman,
Just as a previous reader was astounded a few weeks ago (see your June 14th post re firefly flashing), I witnessed something tonight that I have never seen before in my short 32 years of observing lightning bugs, which are very common here in northern Illinois during the summer months. These lightning bugs were flashing more rapidly than I have ever seen lightning bugs flash before. I was able to concentrate on a few individuals close on the fence post, and their flashes were extremely fast, not like the normal relaxed on and off glow I’ve always known them to have. These bugs were flashing so rapidly it reminded me of a strobe light. And there were so many in the field flashing like this that it looked literally like twinkling Christmas lights. I just stood there staring because I really had never seen such a sight. Anyway, sorry for rambling, but I thought it interesting that I would be privy to seeing this after just having read a post on the same subject on your sit
e. I am a big fan of the site. Keep up your great work!!
Sincerely,
Amy Berogan, Rockford, IL
Signature: Amy Berogan
Dear Amy,
Thanks for your comment. While in Ohio in June, Daniel also had the opportunity to witness one single rapid flasher that also seemed bent on flying quickly as it covered a great deal of space in a short period of time. He was used to seeing Fireflies hovering about in the same area while flashing slowly.
Foreign…beetle?
Location: Orange County, California
June 20, 2011 7:24 pm
Ran across this guy near my house. I’ve never seen this kind of bug around here, so I figured it was foreign. It didn’t fly off even when I got inches away to take this shot.
Signature: Mike Michika
Rough Stink Bug
Dear Mike,
This is a Rough Stink Bug in the genus Brochymena and it ranges across North America.
Insect identification
Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
June 21, 2011 3:20 pm
Greetings from Dominican Republic. A friend of mine send me your website to clarify my search of what’s that bug?
Yesterday I was at my new home and I found this small insect standing on the floor opening his legs in a curious an funny way. Can you please tell me many things on this bug. Thanks on advance.
Signature: Alejandro (Dominican Republic)
Assassin Bug
Hi Alejandro,
We do not recognize the species, but we can tell you that this insect is an Assassin Bug in the family Reduviidae. Most Assassin Bugs are predators on other insects and arthropods, hence they are considered beneficial insects. A very small percentage of Assassin Bugs, most notably the Blood Sucking Conenose Bugs in the genus Triatoma, take blood from warm blooded prey like mammals and occasionally humans. Your Assassin Bug is not a Blood Sucking Conenose. We can speculate that it is a beneficial species.
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