What are these!?
Location: Branson, MO
October 24, 2011 2:09 am
Hey, was on a hike with the fam in Branson, MO and I found these caterpillar worm looking things all over this leaf. Here’s a couple photos for ya. Hopefully you can identify them for me.
Signature: Carson
Buckmoth Caterpillars
Hi Carson,
These sure look to us like Buckmoth Caterpillars, possibly Hemileuca maia based on this BugGuidephoto. Your email did not indicate if this is a recent sighting. We suspect it was earlier in the season. Please clarify. Was the tree an oak?
Buckmoth Caterpillars
1
Is this a bagworm?
Location: Fish Hoek, Cape peninsular
October 24, 2011 4:15 am
I found this group under a rock each measures about 8 mm long.
I am in Fish Hoek, Cape peninsular area.
(In Zimbabwe we used to get big bagworms that made their sleeping bags out of thorns etc)
Signature: Brian
Possibly Caddisfly Pupae
Hi Brian,
We don’t know what this is, but we don’t believe they are Bagworms. Our best guess is perhaps the Pupae of Caddisflies or Caseworms. The larvae are aquatic and build “homes of sticks, shells or grains of sand. Each species has a very distinctive case. Caddisflies also spin silk. Was this rock overhang near a stream? If not, then we are most probably wrong. We hope one of our readers can provide some information. The North Carolina State University Entomology website has a nice page on Caddisflies.
Hi
Interesting – thanks for the comments!
There is no steam nearby – in fact I on a very rocky and rather dry area of sandstone hill/mountain about 2.5 km from the ocean. (Fynbos)
The drawings on the www.cals.ncsu.edu website are similar – but I think I will have to ask the local university Zoology Dept
Thanks
Brian
Then Caddisflies must be wrong. This needs more thought.
Can you ID these bugs?
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
October 24, 2011 9:25 pm
Hi We have just found this bugs, mainly the orange, ladybird looking ones on my mother’s stone fruit trees. They seem to be have suckers inbedded in the bark and the tree seems to be really struggling. She is in Adelaide, South Australia, it is currently Spring.
Thanks so much.
Alison.
Signature: No preference
Lady Beetle Pupae
Hi Alison,
You have sent us photos of the pupae and a larva of some Lady Beetle. We presume they are the same species. They appear to be Common Spotted Ladybirds, Harmonia conformis, based on photos posted to the Brisbane Insect website.
Lady Beetle Larva
Butterfly
October 24, 2011
I think it’s Ruby-Spotted Swallowtail, the same that bugguide describes as “Rare in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas. Has strayed as far north as Kansas.” The location is Pirituba, São Paulo, Brazil.
Cesar Crash
Ruby Spotted Swallowtail
Hi Cesar,
The range of the Ruby Spotted Swallowtail, Papilio anchisiades, is “From south Texas south to Argentina” according to the Butterflies and Moths of North America website, and Brazil is certainly in that range. According to Butterfly Corner, it is also called the Red Spotted Swallowtail.
A dozen ten lined June bugs in my basement (so far) in October!!
Location: South Eastern Idaho
October 24, 2011 9:03 pm
We recently purchased a 100+ year old home. The home had been vacant since the spring. When we installed a new furnace and brought the home up to temperature last week 10/15/11 I noted a few days later several large bugs lying around in the basement. All were dead or nearly dead when found. I looked around and noted that in the area of the basement where the concrete floor doesn’t cover that there are some bore holes, about the size of an adult’s finger into the clay floor in this area. I was surprised to find them all dead and even more surprised once I found a picture on your website that let me guess what kind of bug it is.
Am I seeing an infestation? Are they waking and dying because we warmed up the home and they think it is spring? Will I have this happen over and over or are these beetles going to exhaust thier numbers after this false spring?
Signature: Rick
Ten Lined June Beetle
Hi Rick,
Since the larvae and pupae of the Ten Lined June Beetle live underground for several years, and since the ground temperature is a significant factor in the emergence of insects that live underground, it is likely that heating the basement triggered an early emergence for the brood of Ten Lined June Beetles you found in October. We suspect that the clay floor might have provided a suitable location for a female to have laid eggs since the grubs feed on the roots of trees and shrubs. We strongly doubt that the eggs were laid outside and the grubs tunneled to your basement. We think it is more logical that at some point a female was trapped in the house and laid eggs on the floor. We doubt that this pattern will repeat in future years, though it is entirely possible there is an isolated population of Ten Lined June Beetles that have been cyclically reproducing in the home if the required roots are near the surface of the clay floor.
Moth in the Everglades
Location: Everglades, Florida
October 24, 2011 9:09 pm
Hello, I took this photo while on a slog through the Everglades (mid-October). Could you help me identify it?
Signature: Jim Poyser
Mournful Sphinx
Hi Jim,
Your somber moth, Enyo lugubris, goes by the common name the Mournful Sphinx. The Sphingidae of the Americas website is always a great place to identify Sphinx Moths from the family Sphingidae. The species is found in the southernmost portions of North America as well as the tropics of Central and South America. According to BugGuide, it is found in “Forests, edges, presumably.”
what is this
Location: maryland
October 24, 2011 5:04 pm
we have tons of these spiders all over our house some with the leg span mind you can get up to the size of a soft ball, they are all in our garage and now finding them in the house. can you please help? are the venomous? i have little kids. so just wondering
Signature: mary shoemaker
Wolf Spider, Hogna baltimoriana we believe
Dear Mary,
Wolf Spiders like your specimen are not considered to be harmful spiders. Nearly all spiders have venom, but very few spiders have venom that is dangerous to humans. We believe we have identified your spider as Hogna baltimoriana based on photos posted to BugGuide, though we would not rule out that it is another member of the genus. We hope we can convince you to allow these spiders to cohabitate with you because the advantages they provide as predators that will keep undesireable creatures from prowling around your home far outweigh your arachnophobia about them. Perhaps if we name them the Baltimore Wolf Spider after the scientific name might convince you to see them in a more positive light.
The "Baltimore" Wolf Spider
1
Large fly(?) in Texas
Location: Dallas, TX
October 23, 2011 10:56 pm
Hello WTB
Please help me identify this LARGE fly(?) that my son found in our back yard.
- We live in North Dallas, TX
- It was found today, October 23
- It was found on a piece of playground equipment less than a foot from the ground
- It does not seem able to fly, but buzzes loudly when it attempts to
Thank you for all of your efforts. your site is my first stop when attempting to ID something new that we’ve found.
Signature: Brandon
Rabbit Bot Fly
Hi Brandon,
This is a Bot Fly in the genus Cuterebra, and we are nearly certain it is the Rabbit Bot Fly, Cuterebra lepusculi, a species we just posted last week. We are going to copy Jeff Boettner on our response so he can verify the identification since he has been providing correct species identifications for our Bot Fly submissions. If you still have this specimen, Jeff may request it for study purposes. Bot Flies in the genus Cuterebra are endoparasites of rodents and they have very interesting life cycles. Your photographs are excellent.
Rabbit Bot Fly
Daniel -
Thank you for the quick response, and thank you for the compliment on the photos. I’ve attached a much better photo here, now that I’ve had time to properly set up and shoot this one.
Jeff -
I just read your comments on WTB. I appreciate all of the great info. I will indeed post this on BugGuide.net. I’m excited about your interest in this find. This is a first for me, and I do a fair amount of amateur insect hunting and photography.
I do still have the live specimen, and would be happy to share it. No eggs yet, but I will send those as well if they come. How should I go about getting it to you in the best possible condition?
Feel free to look through the photos of my other finds on my website. The “nature” section can be found here:
http://www.themcmurrays.net/photos/nature/index.html
Kind regards,
-Brandon
Rabbit Bot Fly
Hi again Brandon,
Thanks for taking the time to take this stunning new photograph that is artful as well as accurately depicting the morphology of the Rabbit Bot Fly.
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