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
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.
Lady beetle – near Toronto ON
Location: King City (north of Toronto)
October 24, 2011 8:15 am
Hello…
The attached lady beetle was found in a forested area about 30 km north of Toronto. Note the unusual marking and, even more, the embossed textured lines running parallel to the centre. Would this be another weird variant of the Asian multicoloured?
Date was May 19, 2011.
thanks!
Signature: Gavin Miller
Leaf Beetle: Calligrapha rowena
Hi Gavin,
Your beetle is not one of the Lady Beetles despite the black and orange coloration and the small size. This is actually a Leaf Beetle, and we followed our first suspicion that it is in the genus Calligrapha, and we quickly identified it as Calligrapha rowena, which has no common name. According to BugGuide, it feeds “on Cornus (dogwood).” The leaf in your photo appears to be a dogwood leaf.
Leaf Beetle: Calligrapha rowena
Hello Daniel:
Thanks very much for your quick reply! This makes a lot of sense, given the dogwood the beetle was on (and abundant in the area). And the patterning on the wing cases is indeed calligraphic.
cheers,
Gavin
1
Not Even Sure What Order This is In
Location: Mt. Pisgah, North Carolina
October 23, 2011 8:07 am
We saw this insect in mid-October on a trail next to the Mt. Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was quite active considering it was on the north slope late in the morning.
Signature: Steve
Oil Beetle
Hi Steve,
Your confusion regarding the insect order is quite understandable since this Oil Beetle is not typically “beetle-like” with its short flightless elytra and soft body. The Oil Beetle is a Blister Beetle in the family Meloidae, and many members of the family are atypical beetles.
What is this bug?
Location: Ile de France, France
October 22, 2011 10:31 am
Hello,
I took this picture in july in a meadow and I have yet to figure out what it is.
Thank’s in advance!
Signature: NK
Spotted Longhorn
Dear NK,
This is one of the Longhorned Borer Beetles in the family Cerambycidae, commonly called Bycids among entomophiles. We believe it is one of the Flower Longhorns in the subfamily Lepturinae. We hadn’t much hope that we would be able to come up with a species for you, but as luck would have it, we believe we have correctly identified your beetle as Leptura (or the anagrammatical Rutpela) maculata based on this image from the Worldwide Cerambycidae Photo Gallery. According to BioLib, the species is called the Spotted Longhorn.
Ground beetle?
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
October 22, 2011 11:59 am
Hey! I’m a wildlife student and I’ve been searching for a species from the order Coleoptera to write a report on. I’ve stumbled upon this guy; rather he stumbled upon me while attempting to hide under my bare foot (jeesh!). I’m new to beetles and haven’t the experience in identifying them. Hoping you can help 
Signature: Cole
European Ground Beetle
Hi Cole,
This is most certainly a Ground Beetle. Furthermore, we believe it is an introduced species, the European Ground Beetle, Carabus nemoralis. We matched your beetle to a photo on BugGuide.
European Ground Beetle
Unknown Borer Beetle
Location: Rocky Mountain House, AB, Canada
October 20, 2011 12:24 am
I saw this beetle at the front entrance to the Visitor Center at Rocky Mountain House National Park in Alberta in June. I took the picture and went inside and asked if anybody could tell me what it was. One person walked outside and said it was a June Bug and to be careful as it may bite, then stomped on it. It doesn’t look like a June Bug as I remember growing up in Colorado. It has very much the shape of a Banded Alder Borer. Maybe 40 mm including antenna. Also, if you look closely around the thorax, does it have an infestation of lice?
At the Canadian border this week, I picked a brochure titled ”DON’T MOVE FIREWOOD”. Prominently displayed on the front of the brochure is, I think, a picture of this beetle, implying that it is some kind of invasive species, but it doesn’t identify it. What is it?
Signature: R. Reed
White Spotted Sawyer with Phoretic Mites
Dear R. Reed,
Your beetle is one of the native Longhorned Borers, specifically Monochamus scutellatus, the White Spotted Sawyer which is named for the white scutellum, the triangular shaped marking at the base of the elytra or wing covers. According to BugGuide, other common names include Longicorne noir in French speaking Canada and the intriguing names Oil Sands Beetle and Tar Sands Beetle. Here is the BugGuide explanation for those names: “The local (to Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada) common names of Oil Sands Beetle and Tar Sands Beetle are due to the attraction of this insect to oil sands. Apparently the attraction is the scent of bitumen, chemically similar to compounds released by the diseased or damaged coniferous trees where they are attracted to lay their eggs.”
The infestation you mentioned are actually Mites, and we were at first uncertain if they were parasitic Mites or opportunistic Mites using the beetle for transportation purposes, a phenomenon known as phoresy. We found a photo on BugGuide of a White Spotted Sawyer with Mites, but no explanation. Additional research led us to an online article on the Canadian Entomologist website with the lengthy title: “REVIEW OF MITES OF THE GENUS MUCROSEIUS (ACARI: MESOSTIGMATA: ASCIDAE) ASSOCIATED WITH SAWYER BEETLES (CERAMBYCIDAE: MONOCHAMUS AND MECYNIPPUS) AND PINE WOOD NEMATODES [APHELENCHOIDIDAE: BURSAPHELENCHUS XYLOPHILUS (STEINER AND BUHRER) NICKLE], WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF SIX NEW SPECIES FROM JAPAN AND NORTH AMERICA, AND NOTES ON THEIR PREVIOUS MISIDENTIFICATION.” The article begins: “Six new species of Mucroseius having adult females phoretic on adult sawyer beetles of the genus Monochamus are described,” and that was sufficient to indicate that these mites are interested in the beetles for transportation purposes, though we are curious as to the intricacies of the relationship between these organisms. Alas, we have no time to delve deeper.
We are somewhat troubled by your experience at the Visitor Center at Rocky Mountain House National Park in Alberta in June. We can’t help but to wonder if the person who misidentified this Sawyer, mistaking it for a June Bug and promptly stomping on it was a park employee. That does not seem like appropriate behavior for a national park employee at a visitor center. We suspect it was more likely another tourist. The brochure on firewood is noteworthy. Even native species can have their range expanded through human actions.
1
Weird Bug in Tucson Arizona
Location: Tucson AZ
October 19, 2011 9:11 pm
Hi, we saw this but outside an Ace Hardware store in Tucson Arizona USA. I have never seen anything like it here before. I took a few photos but didn’t want to get too close because it had huge pinchers. The thing finally flew away. It was about 1.5 to 2 inches long not including its antennae.
Signature: Meg
Long Jawed Longhorn Beetle
Hi Meg,
This is one impressive beetle. It is a Long Jawed Longhorn Beetle, Trachyderes mandibularis, and we have posted a few photos of this species in the past. According to BugGuide, its range is: “southwestern U.S. (TX-CA), south to Honduras, southern Florida.” The well developed mandibles indicates that this is a male.
Thank you so much. I can see how they got their name. Armed with the name of the insect I looked up more about them. Funny I had never seen one before in all my years living here.
Meg
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