this bug is the first like it i have ever seen.
Location: texas
June 21, 2011 12:13 am
I found this bug in my kitchen sink. It makes a loud chirp/ squeal. I live on a lake in south Texas. It has visible eyes and its front legs look like it uses them to eat.
Signature: Jeanette Stockman
Toe-Biter
Hi Jeanette,
We love your photo. This is a Giant Water Bug and it is also commonly called a Toe-Biter. Though it is an aquatic insect, we doubt that it was attracted to your sink as a water source, and it is also not interested in food scraps as it is a very proficient predator. Another common name for the Giant Water Bug is Electric Light Bug, and we believe it was probably attracted to a light over the sink.
Stripped bug from California
Location: Northeast Los Angeles, CA
June 21, 2011 12:51 am
We found this bug in our living room on a blanket. It was rocking forward and back like it was heaving. We caught it in a little pail, which amplified its breathing…it was huffing and puffing. We tossed it outside and took the photos. Noticed later that it left a small dark deposit on the blanket 
Wish we had audio for you too.
Signature: Mary
Ten Lined June Beetle
Dear Mary,
True to its name, the Ten Lined June Beetle arrived right on time.
Can anyone identify these guys for me
Location: LaQuinta California (Mojave Desert)
June 21, 2011 3:43 am
I’m new here. Can anyone identify these guys?
Signature: unsigned
Master Blister Beetle
Hi unsigned,
This is a Master Blister Beetle, Lytta magister, and there is much information on the species in our archive.
Metallic bee or wasp
Location: Northeast Louisiana
June 20, 2011 10:54 pm
Bugman, In 2010 I was stung by a stunningly beautiful bee or wasp. In reflex I knocked it off my arm. Naturally it was stunned. I was able to capture it and used a lasso technique to photograph it; afterwards I let it go out into the wild blue yonder. It reminded me of a sweatbee, but larger, more the size of a honeybee. Outer shell very hard and glassy. Brilliant metallic peacock blue with translucent black wings. Antennae did not curl like you see in some species. It’s definitely not a cricket killer, orchard bee. I’ve compared every detail. I think it’s too big to be some sort of sweat bee. Hope you can identify it.
Signature: BugBunny
Cuckoo Wasp
Dear BugBunny,
This colorful creature is a Cuckoo Wasp in the family Chrysididae. We are very intrigued with you lasso technique for photography. It appears that dental floss or thread was used to keep the Cuckoo Wasp from flying away before the photo session was complete. Cuckoo Wasps, according to BugGuide, as “Parasitoids feed on the larva of the host and cleptoparasites ‘steal’ the host’s food. The food-stealing behavior of cleptoparasite species resembles that of the cuckoo bird and gave rise to the cuckoo wasp’s name. Hosts of parasitoid species include bees, sphecid wasps, potter wasps, sawflies, silk moths, and the eggs of stick insects. Cleptoparasitic species feed on provisions of sphecid wasp nests, which may include dead spiders, true bugs, aphids, or thrips.” BugGuide also notes: “According to Kimsey (2): ‘The female sting has been modified into an egg-laying tube with highly reduced valvulae and poison gland. As a result, unlike most other aculeates, chrysidids cannot sting, and they can be easily handled whether male or female’.“ That information contradicts your personal experience that you were stung. Perhaps you were really bitten as it appears that Cuckoo Wasps have well developed mandibles.
Cuckoo Wasp
Daniel, I had already found the photos on BugGuide of the Cuckoo Wasp, when I was holding my wasp in my hand. I was able to compare them carefully, and I didn’t believe it to be the same wasp. My wasp was bluer in tone and did not have the hair or pitted (bubblely?) shell that the Cuckoo photos seem to show. Mine was extremely slick or glassy feeling. The body wasn’t as thick looking as the Cuckoo (more streamlined). As for the sting, maybe it was a “pinch”, because it certainly didn’t hurt or throb afterwards, but it looked liked it had a stinger and I noticed it because of the pain (minor) on my arm. The lasso was made with jeweler’s wire, which is thin as thread and pliable. It was fairly easy to wrap around his body and then unwrap. This must be a huge family of wasps, in all my searching of images on the internet, I haven’t found one that looked like mine. It is a beautiful creature though, it seemed to me to be a fantasy model of a transformer wasp.
Since we have no entomologists on staff, we may be wrong.
Camouflage Bug
ILocation: A farm stand in Northern NJ
June 20, 2011 4:02 pm
This was a bug on a screen at a farm we were at in northern NJ on June 20th. Didn’t realize it was real at first, thought it was a leaf!
Signature: Beth Marks
Pandora Sphinx
Dear Beth,
The olive markings on the Pandora Sphinx or Pandorus Sphinx, Eumorpha pandorus, really do resemble the markings on camouflage fatigues, and you are not the first person who has noted that. Nocturnal Sphinx Moths often come to rest during the day near light sources, only to fly away again when night falls again.
scorpion found in bathroom
Location: camino california, el dorado county
June 19, 2011 9:28 pm
found this little guy under the bathroom rug, i think its the Northwest Forest Scorpion, but i thought i should ask your opinion just to be safe, its only about an inch long and prefers to play dead rather then turn agressive. love the site, keep up the great work!
Signature: adric
California Forest Scorpion
Dear adric,
Thank you so much for sending in your photograph. We did a web search for Northwest Forest Scorpion, and we found a BugGuide page on the California Forest Scorpion, Uroctonus mordax, that looks just like your Scorpion.
Antlion in Austin
Location: Austin, Texas
June 20, 2011 3:49 pm
Hi Bugman!
You’ve answered my questions in the past, and it was so easy to find what this little guy was with just a few clicks on your site. My 9-yr-old was just SURE we had discovered a new specimen of bug, and insisted I take a pic as we hurried out the door to school. I’ll submit the pic, just in case you think it is worthy of posting…but he’s a pretty bland-colored guy. Maybe of the ”non-fancy” genus?
Signature: Courtney Cavness
Antlion
Hi Courtney,
We are thrilled to post your photo of an Antlion which we find to be anything but bland, and we are also thrilled to hear that you were able to self identify it so easily.
No idea what this thing is..
Location: Southern Minnesota
June 20, 2011 1:51 pm
I was pounding a steel post in for my garden fence when I noticed this little friend on the post. It was about 2.5 to 3 inches long and maybe a half inch wide. When I told my sister about, she said she had found the same bug in a tub in the shed a couple days before and let it go in the yard. I left it alone and it eventually was gone. Any idea what it is?
Signature: JWB
Giant Stonefly
Dear JWB,
This marvelous insect is a Giant Stonefly in the genus Pteronarcys.
I like This
