Make plans for your own local National Moth Week event!!!
Posted February 1, 2012
What's That Bug? will be working the the…
creepy crawler unidentified
Location: Horjul, Slovenia, EU
January 31, 2012 8:21 am
Found this thing trying to eat my hardwood floor! The noise…
Stink Bug
Location: Elyria, Ohio
January 2, 2012 10:47 pm
Hi,
We live in northern Ohio. Every winter we get Stinkbugs in the house.…
Local Lepidoptera: Butterflies and Moths of the L.A. Region with Daniel Marlos
When Sat, February 25, 2012, 1:30pm – 3:30pm
Where Theodore…
November 12, 2011
What's That Bug? is profiled on High Country News.
Rock star status
November 14, 2011 11:22 am
Dear Daniel, Thanks for…
Giant furry ant or bee without wings?
July 11, 2009
I found this inside out house. He was about 5/8 inches long.
David Brownell
Jocotepec, JAL, Mexico
Velvet Ant from Jalisco
Dear David,
Your insect is a flightless female wasp known as a Velvet Ant, but we do not know the species. It is probably in the genus Dasymutilla. We already posted another individual from Oregon today. Your photo is awesome.
Male Dobsonfly
July 10, 2009
I live near the Susquehanna river in NE Pennsylvania and often visit with my camera. Today I went down after work, dropped my camera bag on the bank and went to work photographing wildflowers.
I turned back to my bag in time to see this guy crawling up to the top, where he latched onto the handle and proceeded to flap his wings furiously (thus the motion blur, sorry). Seriously, I think he was humping my bag. I’m wondering if he mistook my hairclip for a female 
I took a few shots, then found a stick and shooed him away. And of course, took a few shots of him on the ground. That one is blurry because I am a chicken and didn’t want to get too close.
Jeanne
Northeastern PA
Male Dobsonfly
Hi Jeanne,
We already posted two Dobsonfly images today, but your letter is so wonderful and you photo is so great, we really needed to add it to our site as well. Thanks for an excellent contribution.
three unknown insects
July 10, 2009
I am enclosing three photos of bugs we have found around our Phoenix AZ home. We liv next to a wash and have lots of lizards and birds, and expect to have some insects but two spiders we cannot identfy and now a giant beetle. Can you help us?
Deborah
Phoenix AZ urban neighborhood near wash
Palo Verde Root Borer
Hi Deborah,
We already sent you a quick response identifying your Solpugid and Tailless Whipscorpion, neither of which is an insect, and neither of which is venomous or harmless to you. The third photo we are happy to post to our site. It is a Palo Verde Root Borer, Derobrachus hovorei. According to BugGuide it is found in the “southwestern United States (AZ, CA, NM, NV, TX) and northern Mexico” and adults are attracted to lights. Thanks for including the quarter for scale.
what is this thing?
July 11, 2009
I’ve seen a few of these the past few nights, only at night. The ones I’ve seen are near a light source, and rather inactive. Two sets of wings, a soft abdomen, 6 legs, 2 antennae, and claw like pinchers at it’s mouth. this one is about 2.5″ long and a wingspan of 3.5″. I have never seen anything close to this before.
Ryan
West suburbs of Chicago
Hi Ryan,
This is a female Dobsonfly, a common insect throughout the eastern U.S. We also just posted a photo of a male Dobsonfly from Ecuador. You should compare the modest mandibles on your female to the impressive set on the male of the species, though we suspect the Ecuadorean individual is of a different species.
A Cool Site!
July 11, 2009
I wished to thank you for such an amazing and informative site; this from a non-bug lover who would have to honestly admit to some unnecessary carnage in her lifetime especially a creepy, crawly anything…
butterflies, (caterpillars of course) lady bugs (the only one loved out of the beetle family) and a few others I’ve never murdered, though lets not go into carpenter ants and the wealth of stories there!
Either way, I began to research a funny looking beetle I have come across both last summer and this summer and though I did have a beetle farm (I am an adult) last summer, I could not find one informative answer to what type it was. Having Googled ‘Common Household Canadian Bugs’ early this morning, your site came up and yet I do not see this beetle here either:( No worries I’ll take a photo at some point.
By providing such an incredible site however, you have educated my mind and I won’t be so quick to tissue squish a harmless insect the next time, afterall God created all even if some of what he created isn’t all that pretty! If bugs had a voice, I’m certain they’d agree:)
Lastly I was very much amused in finding your Nasty Reader Award in the uncaterogized section and laughed heartily over a response to someone named Johnathan by a ‘loyal bug fan,’ in the reason his pictures were not sent by e-mail of his bug, was simply because said bug ‘was up his arse.’ The explanation and vivid imagination with which one of your loyal bug fans winged into their response was delightful reading at best. Simply a great way to begin my day.
So again thank you and I have bookmarked your site to begin an adventure into learning while one day I may be able to report that ‘I am now A Reformed Bug Squisher.’
Dear Reformed Squisher,
Thanks for your awesome letter. We are happy that we amused you. We have been without a computer for two day and were unable to make any new posts, but our fast new computer is allowing us to expedite the response process. Though we doubt we will ever be able to respond to all of our mail, at least we will be able to respond to more of it. Your letter will have a permanent home on our fanmail page.
Butterfly ID requested
July 10, 2009
Butterfly ID requested
Can someone tell me what this butterfly is? I photographed it in June near Zilnia, Slovakia in Europe. Both photos are of the insect. Thank you.
Jim Zuckerman
Zilnia, Slovakia
Silver Studded Blue
Dear Jim,
What we could say before doing any research is that your butterfly is a Gossamer Winged Butterfly in the family Lycaenidae and the subfamily Polyommatinae. Now that we have a brand new computer, our internet research is so much faster. We quickly tentatively identified your butterfly as a Silver Studded Blue, Plebejus (Plebeius) argus, on the Butterflies of Europe and North Africa website. The bright blue coloration indicates a male. Sadly, we cannot link directly to the image on the previous site, but the Butterflies of Norway site has mounted specimens. They are not as pretty as the living specimens.
Silver Studded Blue
Unknown Ant
July 11, 2009
We found this ant in West Salem Oregon. It was found along a dirt road and has lasted for about 45 days and is still alive in a jar with holes in the lid. I have looked everywhere for some clue as to what it is and can not find anything about this ant the closest that I can find is the cowkiller ant or the velvet ant. Could you help me find out what this ant is? The ant when we first got it had yellow “hair” it has now started to burrow in the dirt I have in the jar and so it has turned brown from the dirt.
Robert Henry
Salem Oregon USA
Velvet Ant
Hi Robert,
The Cowkiller is one distinctive species of Velvet Ant in the genus Dasymutilla. Your specimen is a related species in the same genus, possibly Dasymutilla aureola. We will try to get a second opinion from Eric Eaton on the species identification. Female Velvet Ants are flightless wasps with a painful sting. The winged males do not sting.
Update from Eric Eaton
Daniel:
Your species ID of the Oregon velvet ant is correct. The “blockhead” appearance is pretty diagnostic.
Eric
Can you dentify this bug?
July 10, 2009
Can you dentify this bug?
Found in Bend, Oregon near kitchen window inside:(
I first thought it was a tick, but it has pinchers, and walks backward like a crab. It is dark reddish-brown with no spots or other markings(see photo). Can you help us identify it, and should we be concerned that it was in our house? Thanks,
Marc Mauch
Bend, Oregun USA
Pseudoscorpion
Hi Mark,
The harmless predatory Pseudoscorpion is often mistaken for a tick. There are numerous species and they are found throughout the world.
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