One for your collection
Location: Queensland. Australia
January 21, 2012 12:33 am
Hi guys,
Seems you don’t have this guy in the database, or at least the search engine didn’t bring it up for me. These guys, the Blue-banded Bee – Amegilla cingulata, are becoming a very important pollinators for commercial crops as the Small Hive Beetle infests many European Honey Bee nests in Queensland and wipes them out.
Signature: Aussietrev
Blue Banded Bee
Dear Trevor,
Thanks so much for providing us with another wonderful and underrepresented species from Australia. We are able to link to the Brisbane Insect website which has some nice images of the Blue Banded Bee. As you indicate, with modern threats to domestic Honey Bee populations, Solitary native bees are becoming increasingly important as pollinators.
What kind of beetle is this?
Location: Lagoa Azul, Penha Longa, Sintra, Portugal
January 20, 2012 5:33 am
Hello ATB.
I ran into this beetle and have searched along almost all of your beetles in WTB but didn’t found it.
Maybe you could help me identify what kind of beetle this is. It seems some kind of Longhorn Beetle.
This was taken near a lake in Portugal. It is very common beetle in here. It was taken in the winter and this beetle has about 5cm long.
Can you please help me identify this beetle?
Thanks,
Signature: Diogo Ferreira
Harlequin Bug
Dear Diogo,
We hoped you enjoyed browsing through all of our beetles, the most numerous category on our website, but alas, you were searching the wrong category. This is not a Beetle. It is a True Bug. We quickly identified it as Lygaeus equestris and we found numerous photos on the FlickRiver page of the world’s best photos of Lygaeus equestris. It can also be found on the Encyclopedia of Life website. The genus Lygaeus belongs to the Seed Bug family Lygaeidae.
Dear Daniel,
Thank you very much. You were of great help.
I was indeed a little lost…
Thanks once again.
Diogo Ferreira.
October moth?
Location: Port Coquitlam, BC, Ca
January 19, 2012 11:40 pm
This (moth?) sat unmoving for several hours on the key guard of a near-by door. I really wanted a look at the abdomen, but thought it unfriendly to poke at it. Total legnth of about 5 cm, including antennae. Photos taken on October 5/11.
thank you!
Storm Vos-Browning
Signature: Storm
Caddisfly
Hi Storm,
Though it is mothlike, this insect is actually a Caddisfly in the order Trichoptera. Caddisflies have aquatic larvae that carry cases about with them earning them the common name of Caseworm.
Hi Daniel,
For a small team with a backlog, you sure answered my question FAST! Thak you. The forward pointing antennae looked wrong for a moth, as did the mouth parts, but I’m not very good at identifying insects. Love watching them, though – I’ve spent hours watching caddisfly larvae in local waterways, but didn’t know what the adults looked like.
As with the stink bug nymph you ID’ed for me back in August, I’ll post a link to What’s That Bug? when I post the photo on my blog.
best wishes,
Storm
Thanks for the positive comments Storm. So, you raise Killies? The African Aphyosemion species are really spectacular fish. We have our own Angelfish aquaria going. We are sticking to Amazon species for now.
Wow, Daniel, you actually checked out the link? No one ever does that!
“Amazon species” is a huge category – you’ll never run out of cool species. I’m personaly captivated by the small, nocturnal driftwood cats, the corydoras and farlowellas.
The unidentified critter Lori asks about at the bottom of the page looks to be a seed shrimp (Ostracod) but the photo is indistinct. I don’t know how you manage to ID bugs from photos!
you run an awesome site!
cheers, Storm
1
Peruvian Grasshopper Photos
Date: January 19, 2012 10:12:38 AM PST
Location: Peru
Okay, here are pics of a couple of grasshoppers that caught my attention in Peru last November.
… 2. “Yellow Grasshoppers”: photo of a male (enlarged portion of which you saw this morning), and a photo of a mating pair. Near Tarapoto, Dept. San Martín, northern Peru, 5 November 2011. On roadside vegetation, on top of a large leaf of a plant that may be in the Euphorbiaceae (most of which are toxic), but not sure if this was the foodplant or just a perching spot. (Photographed by our Peruvian bird guide, Silverio Duri, using my sister’s camera.)
You’re welcome to publish these if you see fit.
Julian
Gaudy or Lubber Grasshopper???
Hi Julian,
We have not been able to substantiate our identification with any matching photographs on the internet, but we believe these lovely creatures with aposomatic or warning coloration nodules on their heads and thoracic sections are Pyrgomorphs or Gaudy Grasshoppers. Was there any milkweed nearby. The look very much like the Toxic Milkweed Grasshoppers in the family. We did locate this wonderful website called Flickriver: Most interesting photos tagged with pyrgomorphidae, but alas, your beauties are not represented.
Could these be mating Spendid Grasshoppers???
Update: Cesar from Brazil sent us a link to Chromacris psittacus which is a very close match. If Cesar is correct in either the species or genus, then we are wrong in the family since Encyclopedia of Life classifies them in Romaleidae. We believe there may be an error someplace since BugGuide indicates the subfamily Romaleinae for Lubber Grasshoppers. Perhaps these are actually Lubber Grasshoppers, though often Lubbers have atrophied wings. There is an example with yellow antennae tips on Yakovlev alexey’s photos of FlickRiver. You need to scroll down a bit. Artour A’s Flickriver site gives a common name of Spendid Grasshopper or Brasilinho for the genus Chromacris.
Karl provides an identification
Hi Daniel, Julian and Cesar:
I believe they are definitely a species of Chromacris and the best information I have found for this genus is by Radclyffe and Carbonell (1982). There are only two species in Peru that have yellow-tipped antennae. Based on the yellow banding on the hind legs, this one appears to be C. icterus. The other species with yellow-tipped antennae is C. peruviana, coincidentally posted on your site by Peter Bruce-Jones on February 28, 2011. The main difference is that C. icterus has one yellow band on the hind tibia, while C. peruviana has two (I can’t see the tibia on either of the two mating individuals so I am assuming they are all the same). Regards. Karl
Peruvian Grasshopper Photos
January 19, 2012 10:12:38 AM PST
Location: Peru
Okay, here are pics of a couple of grasshoppers that caught my attention in Peru last November.
1. White-winged Grasshopper. We were birding at km 409.3 on the superb trans-Andean highway Carretera Fernando Belaunde Terry, Dept. Amazonas, northern Peru, east of Abra Patricia Pass in montane evergreen forest, November 7, 2011. Flashes of white in the roadside vegetation caught my attention and, being a lepidopterist, I at first assumed that a moth or white skipper was on the wing. On closer inspection, however, I discovered that it was this grasshopper; while at rest, the grasshopper would quickly flick out its snow white hindwings–too quick for me to photograph–in a presumed territorial or courtship display. When it flew the white wings would again flash, but again too quickly for me to photograph.
You’re welcome to publish these if you see fit.
Julian
Monkey Grasshopper
Hi Julian,
Thanks so much for sending your photos. Interestingly, while trying to identify a Swordtail Butterfly, we found a photo that matched your Grasshopper, and even more interesting, it was in the WTB? archives. It was identified by Karl as a Monkey Grasshopper or Airplane Grasshopper, and possibly the species Paramastax nigra.
1
like from a scrap book, no?
Location: Misiones/Argentina (Iguacu national park)
January 19, 2012 12:56 pm
This is a beautiful butterfly I was able to get a shot in Iguacu, Argentina. It was 2 inch or so. Did not find it’s name on the net. Can you help?
Signature: Jutta
Swordtail Butterfly
Dear Jutta,
This butterfly is positively stunning. We had hoped it would not be too difficult to identify, and we started by doing a word search of “clearwing swallowtail (though we knew it was not Papilionidae) Peru (we read your location too quickly)” and after scouring many photos, we found a close but not perfect match FlickR that was called a Swordtail, but no species name. Then we substituted Swordtail for Swallowtail and we found Morton Ross’ website and a lovely photo identified as the Octauius Swordtail, Chorinea octauius. Armed with a scientific name, we found no shortage of images of this beauty on the internet, including some photos from Panama on the Neotropical Butterflies website, though we were still not sure of the family classification. Though we don’t like to cite Wikipedia as a source, it was Wikipedia that provided the family name Riodinidae, and we have created a new subcategory for Swordtails on our site. Thanks for providing us with a challenging identification. We did locate another member from the family in our archives so your beauty will not be classified alone. We also learned that the family is commonly called Metalmarks.
1
please help
Location: northern maryland
January 19, 2012 11:15 am
I live in northern maryland in hagerstown its currently winter time in january but its been kind of mild. We have some kindof warm days for winter and I keep finding these bugs on my porch. Was just wondering what kind of bugs these are and if it is something on my porch attracting them. Please and thanks in advance.
Signature: Laura
Winter Stonefly
Hi Laura,
This benign creature is a Winter Stonefly, and they are never found far from sources of pure, unpolluted streams. We will elaborate on this when we have an opportunity. See BugGuide for additional information.
I like This
