Spined Soldier Bug????
Location: Fulton County, Illinois
February 10, 2011 1:11 am
I thought this was a Spined Soldier Bug. The red patch on its back is not in any information I have found.
Signature: Steve
Spined Soldier Bug
Dear Steve,
The angle of view of your photo makes it difficult to ascertain for certain that this is a Spined Soldier Bug, Podisus maculiventris, but we believe that you are probably correct because of the spines on the pronotum at the widest point of the body. A photo posted to BugGuide shows some reddish markings on the individual as well as reddish legs. Perhaps there are some latent genes that may eventually result in a population with red markings for this beneficial Predatory Stink Bug.
Wheel Bug eating a Praying Mantis
Location: SE Kansas
February 8, 2011 2:51 pm
Found this wheel bug feasting on this praying mantis! I thought it was an interesting picture and I didn’t find one in the gallery. Thought you might like to have it!! I hope the picture quality is good because is was taking with my phone!
Signature: T
Wheel Bug Preys Upon Preying Mantis
Dear T,
Thank you so much for sending us this incredible Food Chain documentation between two predators. The muted tones of your image lends an almost painterly quality to the photograph. There is a bleakness to the landscape that is reminiscent of the staged clay animation dinosaur battles from movies long before the days of computer generated animation. We do have an example in our archives where the final outcome was different: A Preying Mantis feasting on a Wheel Bug from 2008.
4
Red round insects
Red Light Bulbs and a Paper Wasp Wing
Subject: Red round insects
Location: Austin, Texas
February 6, 2011 9:43 pm
Hi bugman, this is the second time I have seen these tiny, tiny red bugs. They look like small red light bulbs?
Any thoughts, I have looked on-line and still cannot seem to find a match.
Hope you can help.
ESP.
Signature: East Side Patch
Heteropteran Nymphs Scavenging a Paper Wasp Carcass
Dear East Side Patch,
We found a very similar looking Heteropteran Nymph on BugGuide that is identified as a Largus species or Bordered Plant Bug. We located another photo on BugGuide of an later instar nymph of Largus californicus, which should be called the California Bordered Bug (though it is also reported from Texas on BugGuide). Many phytophagous Heteropterans or True Bugs scavenge dead insects in their immature stages. The biggest difference we notice between your Heteropteran Nymphs and the Largus nymphs on BugGuide is that your species has longer, striped antennae.
Thank you so much for these!
This one has had me puzzled for quite some time!
Philip.
Mystery insect
Location: NorthWest England
February 5, 2011 9:14 am
Hi
For the past 2 summers I have had a mystery pest attack my foxgloves, crocosmia and snapdragons and they are slowing spreading to more parts of the garden. They can fly and they move very quickly when disturbed. I’ve looked on lots of pest identifying websites but can’t find out what they are.
Signature: Charlotte Haynes
Plant Bug
Hi Charlotte,
These are Plant Bugs in the family Miridae. Once we did a web search with the family and your location, we quickly identified your particular Plant Bugs as Grypocoris stysi on the British Bugs website which states: “The adults and larvae feed on both flower heads as well as small invertebrates such as aphids.“ Foxgloves are not listed as a food plant which are listed as “nettles in woodland, and sometimes umbellifers and white bryony.“
Plant Bugs
Hi Daniel
That’s great. I was spending ages looking through pictures trying to figure out what they were.
Many thanks
Charlotte
They are taking over my pretty farm house
Location: Southern Indiana
February 3, 2011 12:30 pm
Could someone please help me ID this menance to my newly refurbished farm house? They are all over the walls and especially the windows on the south walls of my house. They are staying downstairs but ladybugs are upstairs and on the west enclosed porch. I knew about the ladybugs and will have to deal with those but this is bigger and ugly. I hessitate in inviting people over for fear they will think Im a poor mother and wife allowing these to cohabitate with us.
Signature: Disheartened mommy
Boxelder Bug
Dear Disheartened mommy,
No amount of post production sharpening in photoshop is going to help your blurry photo, but there are still enough details for us to identify your Boxelder Bug thanks to your excellent description, though ugly is not a word we would use. Boxelder Bugs are harmless creatures that hibernate over the winter. When your farm house was refurbished, the contractor must not have adequately sealed and weatherstripped. You need to find the point of entry and seal it off. The Ladybugs are probably entering the home the same way.
What Bug Is This? It Bit Me Last Night.
Location: New South Wales, Australia
February 3, 2011 6:05 pm
Hi, was laying in bed last night and felt a sharp pain in the back of my thigh and grabbed this bug off me… I have no idea what it is. It left a nice puncture mark and came up in a big welt. Just curious about its identity.. I’m thinking something in the Assassin Family
Signature: Regards Hannah
Assassin Bug
Hi Hannah,
You are correct that this is an Assassin Bug in the family Reduviidae, however, the photo has not been taken from the ideal angle for identification. Your individual does not resemble the thicker bodied Assassin Bugs on the Brisbane Insect website, and it is impossible for us to determine if your individual is one of the more slender bodied Assassin Bugs pictured there.
Interesting bug with a very small head
Location: Singapore, tropical
February 2, 2011 1:58 am
Got this bug from the nature reserve in Singapore, a tropical island country. It has a very small head and a long ?nose.
Please kindly advise the name of it.
Signature: Photoskipper
Bloodsucking Conenose, we believe
Dear Photoskipper,
This is an Assassin Bug in the family Reduviidae, and it sure looks like the North American Bloodsucking Conenose Bugs in the genus Triatoma. According to BugGuide, the genus Triatoma is “Pantropical worldwide.“ BugGuide also notes that the Blood Sucking Conenoses are: “Hematophagous, feeding on blood from tetrapods. Most common hosts are mammalian but avian, reptilian and amphibian hosts are recorded. The most common wild hosts are wood rats (Neotoma) but other common ones include armadillos, opossums and raccoons (possibly also skunks); synanthropic species may feed on livestock (horses, cattle, chickens), pets and humans.” South American Conenoses are vectors for a disease known as Chagas Disease and BugGuide contains this remark: “Bite can cause severe allergic reaction in many humans. Bite and defecation into bite can transmit Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, a protozoan. The most notorious vector is T. infestans, found in South America. The North American species are not normally thought to transmit the disease, though they can carry the parasite. The North American species do not normally defecate at the site of the bite, which is what actually transmits the parasite.“ This ECLAT website lists several Asian species. Bloodsucking Conenose Bugs are also known as Kissing Bugs because the nocturnal insects are alleged to bite human victims near the lips according to Charles Hogue in his book Insects of the Los Angeles Basin.
Bloodsucking Conenose, we believe
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