hong kong bug (with picture this time)
Hi,
Last year when I was on Lamma Island in Hong Kong I photographed this bug. It walked slowly, making it easy to photograph. Do you have any idea what this bug could be? Regards,
Alex
(the netherlands)

Hi Alex,
This is some species of Lanternfly, an insect in the order Homoptera. We found a photo on the Encyclopedia Brittanica site, but it is a different species.

Update: (01/21/2007) About the lanternfly from Hong Kong
Hi Bugman,
I believe that the lanternfly that Alex found in Hong Kong is Pyrops candelaria. The two most “common” Mandarin common names of this lanternfly, if translated literaly to English, is “white wax cicarda” (because of the white, wax-like powders on its eggs), and “longan chicken” (because it feeds on saps of the longan trees (Dimocarpus longan) as well as other fruit trees such as mango, lichi and olive). Pyrops candelaria is easily seen in Hong Kong and SE Asia. Images can be found here ( http://www.pbase.com/bluetitan/pyropscandelaria ) and here ( http://aestheticarthropoda.blogspot.com/2006/12/pyrops-candelaria.html ). (Unfortunately most of the introduction to this lanternfly is in Mandarin, and the second link is the best English description I can find.) hopefully you find it helpful,
Wei-Ting

Thank you so much for the Update Wei-Ting.

Strange Costa Rican Bug…
Here’s a mystery bug for you…. no one @ the lodges we visited or any of the nature guides (and we had several) that we utilized while on vacation in Costa Rica have been able to identify it, or had ever seen it before.. We encountered this bug in a small clearing in the rainforest at the tip of the Osa Peninsula, aprox 500ft above sea level. When I saw what I thought was a feather, I noticed this bug on the side of a tree. It was there with another of the same species. I figure they measured aprox 2 inches long (including plumage – for lack of a better term) and perhaps 1/3rd inch wide (including wings). Since we did not want to disturb them, we did not try to provoke them to take flight or to run away. We were able to get close enough for this picture, though. The plumage was very light in nature, as it swayed and moved a bit in a light breeze (we blew on it to see). Both bugs looked the same, and were about the same in all attributes. Although we have literally hundreds of pictures to go through, this seems to be the only picture we have of it. This was the only of this species that we saw the whole trip. Any ideas what it might be? Thanks,
~C~

Hi ~C~,
This is probably some species of Homopteran, the order that contains Hoppers, Cicadas and Aphids. Perhaps someonw will write in with something more specific. Here is Eric’s response: ” Daniel: You are correct about the Costa Rican insect being a Hemipteran, probably in the family Fulgoridae. Those are wax filaments coming out of its butt:-) I suggest you ask Dr. Andy Hamilton, a frequent visitor to Bugguide, for a more specific, and correct ID. He is in Canada, but has a website, affiliated with a university up there if I recall correctly. … Your’re doing great. Eric”

Chicharra Quetzal
(11/28/2006) Costa Rican Homopteran
Hi,
Regarding the home page photos titled Costa Rican Homopteran from 11/24/2006, I can’t add much except that it is known in southwestern Costa Rica as “Chicharra Quetzal,” and is certainly recognized by the locals there, if you ask the right ones. Also, my source agrees with Eric that it is indeed in the family Fulgoridae, as is the famous Peanut-head Bug or Lantern Bug. I’ve attached a photo of one from Cristalino Jungle Lodge, Brazil. At Cristalino we saw several fulgorids in the same group as the Costa Rican bug as well, but they were about 4 times bigger than the ones I’ve seen in Costa Rica. Somehow, I never managed to get a photo of one. Regards,
Rich
Richard C. Hoyer
Tucson, AZ

Hi Rich,
Thanks so much for the additional information and the wonderful image of a Lanternfly.

This is Weird
Nothing about it in insect book and a lot bug experts dont have clue about it i hope you can tell what is it Kind regards
Awais

Hi Awais,
You are correct. It is weird, and not knowing where it is from is sure not going to help any identification. It is an immature Hopper, one of the Homopterans. After that, we are clueless.

Thanks It was found in my garage walking on bricks. I live in Islamabad capital of Pakistan . i never saw it before.

Flourescent bug
Hello there!
I know you must be terribly swamped….but this bug is so beautiful….can you help me to identify it???? Thank you so very much! I found it on a Redbud leaf a few days ago in central Wisconsin…. Most sincerely…
Gayle Marks

Hi Gayle,
Thank you for your polite letter. We are feeling a bit sensitive at the moment because we just opened a rather rude and demanding letter from a woman who chastised us for not answering her. We will remember her name and hit delete in the future. Sorry to trouble you with our crushed ego. These are Red Banded Leafhoppers or Red and Green Stiped Leafhoppers, or our favorite, Candystriped Leafhoppers, Graphocephala coccinea. Though beautiful, they are thought of as harmful to plants as they suck the juices and have been known to spread viruses from plant to plant as they feed.

what are these bugs? huge mass of them
Found it on a few leaves. My first thought was that those were all baby ants or something but in the photo once enlarged on screen, they don’t look like ants. The bigger ants next to the "mass" weren’t attacking it or anything just sitting there looking at it without moving.-
Greg Dunbar

Hi Greg,
Aphids are the bane to a gardener’s existance as they are injurious to plants. They suck the juices from the plants and proliferate rapidly. Aphids are sometimes called Ant Cows since they have a symbiotic relationship with ant. The Aphids exude a sticky “honeydew” from their anus and the ants just love it. Ants are known to “herd” the Aphids by moving them to other non-infested plants to provide a fresh food supply when the original plant begins to wither and weaken.

Whats this bug?Angel Bug?
Hello, I live in West Virginia and often see these things flloating around and have finally gotten a few pics of one that allowed me to veiw it for a couple minutes. I have talked to a few older people and they said that they always called them Angel Bugs, so i was just wanting more info on this beautiful but sometimes illusive and difficult to photo bug. I tryed looking through your wonderful site but i just didnt know where to begin. Thanks for any info you could provide!
Jed

Hi Jed,
We tried unsucessfully to locate photos of adult Wooly Aphids online. Eric Eaton has substantiated that this is a winged Wooly Aphid.

Wooly Aphids
(06/26/2006) "Angelflies"
Dear What’s That Bug,
Thanks a bunch! For the past three days, I’ve been obsessing– even losing sleep– over a mystery insect that seems to have flourished this year. I’ve known about them for the majority of my life, but always by the name angelflies. Being a zoologically obsessed fifteen year-old, I realized though I knew their name, I knew nothing else. I quickly asked my lover, Google, more. Absolutely nothing useful popped up for the entry "Angelfly". This puzzled me. Why has Google failed me? So, then I asked my mistress, Jeeves (Jeeves can be a mistress if I want him to be). He also could come up with nothing. I then went to Wikipedia… again. Nothing. So, now angry at the world I viciously attacked the line of "X"s on the top, right hand corner of my screen and stomped off to bed. I then sulked around the house all day, quite distraught on the lack of knowledge I had on such a seemingly basic creature. Today, we went on a walk. As we walked I saw one flit by, as if the wind was the choice medium of steering. I gently cupped my hands around it and then tormented the simple minded creature for the sake of observation. I noticed that the white-furred little pixie had four wings… evidently not really a fly. As I paid more attention to everything under the fur, I saw that it had dark, blue-gray skin. Sort of like ash. But what startled me the most was that it looked a lot like an aphid. Bingo! As soon as I got back home, I pounced on your site and searched under the only section I seemed to miss on my hunt amongst your site… the aphids. The entry that caught my eye was that of the wooly aphids, sent by Ryan. I then went back to Google and did an image search and got a very spiffy photo of a "Wooly Apple Aphid". An exact match to what has plagued my dreams for so long! Well… three days… but let’s not split hairs. So, again, thanks for your help in clearing my thoughts! These are truly beautiful little bugs… with maybe not quite as delicate of a name as I’m accustomed to (leave it to West Virginian’s to screw up a perfectly good Google search query!).
Thanks a bunch,
Justin Caruthers

Hi Justin,
What a fabulous letter. Sadly, as it is without an image, we have placed it on our Fanmail 2 page. We hope you are planning to go to college as a wit like yours would be wasted in a factory or Walmart. Let us know if you ever need a letter of recommendation.