Weird bug
Location: 40° 54’ N/ 90° 17’ W
July 10, 2011 3:23 pm
I was wondering if you knew what kind of bug this is.. I live in central Illinois and It’s summer time. This bug was on my staircase outside and I have never seen anything like it.
Signature: Sincerely, Curious
Mating Imperial Moths
Dear Curious,
These are mating Imperial Moths. The male on the bottom is the smaller, more purple member of the pair.
Sphinx Moth?
Location: Connecticut shoreline
July 7, 2011 9:52 am
These two very large moths were mating in my garden in Clinton, CT. The larger of the two is almost 3” long (head to wing tip).
I thought they might be blinded sphinxes, but they don’t have the eye on the underwing.
Beautiful and interesting, but what???
Signature: Sincerely, Toni Leland
Mating Blinded Sphinxes
Hi Toni,
You are correct. They are mating Blinded Sphinxes, but the eyespot is covered until the underwings are revealed. This is the third submission of Blinded Sphinxes we are posting today, and they seem to be eclosing from far and wide, including Washington State and Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Mr. and Mrs. Stag Beetle in my Kitchen Sink
Location: Chelmsford MA
July 7, 2011 1:37 am
Hi Folks,
I live in Chelmsford, MA. Thanks to your website, I was able to identify these enormous critters in my kitchen sink – I think they are male and female Reddish Brown Stag Beetles.
I have found at least two or these beetles in my kitchen sink every year at about the same time of year (early summer). Yesterday there were three of them in my sink. They must be coming up the drain, because anything that large flying in the house would drive my cats wild.
My questions are:
– Why do they come in to the sink every year?
– Is this normal stag beetle behavior?
– Should I be worried about the condition of my foundation or plumbing?
Your website convinced me that these bugs were worth saving, so I gently set them down in my yard.
Thank you so much for any insight you might be able to give!
Sincerely,
Frances Killam
Thank you for your help,
Frances Killam
Stag Beetles in the Kitchen Sink
Hi Frances,
This is most perplexing. We read your email just prior to closing the offices for the night, and we felt we needed to be rested and refreshed before we tackled a response. After a good night’s sleep, we still don’t have a conclusive answer for you. Stag Beetles do spend their larval stage feeding on rotting wood, so there must be a suitable habitat nearby. We found this marvelous British website Stag Beetles for Everyone that may provide you with some insight. We can’t imagine that the Stag Beetles are entering your home through the drain and we would suspect that they have flown in. Perhaps they are attracted to lights, and if a female arrived first and fell into the sink, her pheromones might attract willing male suitors. The sink is a trap for many creatures, and once inside, they are stuck. Perhaps other Stag Beetles have entered your home and those became cat food. We would also encourage our readership to provide their opinions in our comment section.
Staghorn pair
Location: Middlesex County, New Jersey
July 1, 2011 7:28 am
I used your website to identify these beetles.
I thought you might be interested in what I believe to be a male and female Staghorn beetle.
I found these around my home, actually I was alerted by my daughters scream so technically she found them.
Signature: Mark from Woodbridge
Pair of Reddish Brown Stag Beetles
Hi Mark,
We are so excited to be able to post your photos of a pair of Reddish Brown Stag Beetles, Lucanus capreolus. It is also wonderful to have such nice documentation of the sexual dimorphism. The male has the much larger mandibles, and they are allegedly used in sparring contests as males vie for the attention of a female.
Female Reddish Brown Stag Beetle
We hope you released this magnificent pair of Reddish Brown Stag Beetles back into the habitat so that they are able to perpetuate the species. The larvae of Stag Beetles are significant contributors to breaking down rotting wood so that it can be incorporated into soil as humus, thus increasing the fecundity of the soil.
Male Reddish Brown Stag Beetle
wild flowers bring the bugs!
Location: Bright, Indiana
June 28, 2011 8:54 pm
Hi Bugman, wild flowers on a vacant block in Bright, Indiana are giving me heaps of photo ops and questions as to ’What’s that bug?’ The red ’bugs’ were certainly getting busy! Bug #5 was about 1” long and reminded me of a hummingbird the way it hovered. Your site is just the best!
Signature: luv the bugs!
Mating Red Milkweed Beetles
Thanks for your compliment. Milkweed is a very rich insect habitat. There are insects that feed upon parts of the milkweed plant like the Large Milkweed Bug you photographed. Many pollinating insects are attracted to the blossoms which are rich in nectar, like the Hummingbird Moth you submitted. Our favorite of your photos, and the one we are including in this posting, is the image of the mating Red Milkweed Beetles, Tetraopes tetrophthalmus.
Thank you Daniel for helping me out with naming my bugs and posting my picture 
I certainly agree with you about the Milkweed. There were 5 different insects I found that day + several types of bees buzzing around. Thank you for your wonderful site.
Jackie
Southeastern Lubber Love?
Location: rural Tennessee, edge of the Cumberland Plateau
June 26, 2011 3:41 pm
It’s been an active bug spring here on the Eastern Cumberland Plateau, and your website is my first resource for identifications. I saw these more colorful grasshoppers and haven’t quite matched them to previous posts, but think they must be Southeastern Lubbers. They are about 1 or 1-1/2 inch half long (female). Thanks for your tireless work for all us bug-watchers!
Signature: Bob Kieffer
Mating Post Oak Grasshoppers
Hi Bob,
Thanks for the compliment. After considerable research, we believe we have correctly identified your short winged mating Grasshoppers as Post Oak Grasshoppers, Dendrotettix quercus, based on images posted to BugGuide. The Insect Physiology & Behavior Research Group website has a very comprehensive page devoted to Post Oak Grasshoppers, and it indicates that when they are especially numerous, they can defoliate oak trees. You might want to notify the group of your sighting.
Post Oak Grasshopper
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for you research. I did contact the Insect Physiology group as you suggested, and they have confirmed the identification. They also were appreciative of the information on our sighting. Keep up the great work!
Bob
what is this?
Location: Plantersville, TX
June 26, 2011 9:18 pm
I found these ”grasshoppers” on a sidewalk in Plantersville, TX over the weekend. The hind end was wide, not very grasshopper-y. I was wondering if it was just a different kind of grasshopper or what.
Signature: Jana Doss
Mating Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers
Hi Jana,
These are mating, flightless Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers, Romalea microptera. They have both a light and a dark form and this is the light form. We just posted a photo of the dark form that emerged from a watermelon shipment in New Jersey, many hundreds of miles north of its typical range. Texas is the furthest west the Eastern Lubber Grasshopper is found.
Mating Immigrant Leaf Weevils
Location: Hornepayne, Ontario, Canada
June 25, 2011 2:49 pm
Hey,
I thought I’d send you a couple of pictures of mating immigrant leaf weevils. I found them walking along my clothesline today. They were super active, it was hard to get a good picture. As you can see, there is some sexual dimorphism, as well as a slight colour difference between the two. In the second picture, the weevils walked onto my camera lens, and though the picture is fuzzy, you can still see how the male grips the female with his feet.
Signature: HQ
Mating Immigrant Leaf Weevils
Hi HQ,
We are thrilled to be able to post you images of this invasive exotic species perpetuating in its new land. The BugGuide information page on the Green Immigrant Leaf Weevil is quite informative.
Mating Immigrant Leaf Weevil
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