Finally!!
Finally!!! A website that is easy to navigate and find the answers to all the bug questions our there. I stumbled onto your website when trying to identify a bug that my co-worker asked me to smash (I chose to catch and release). I then found your website through ask.com and, it was a solpugid. Intrigued I started to look through the many pictures and letters on your site and was ecstatic to find a picture of a fire beetle. Aka; clicker bug at my home. I am finally able to show people what I am talking about as they look at me like I am crazy when I try to describe it. Thank you again for this wonderful resource. My children are going to love it (future entomologists I think)
Kim Rios

Hi Kim,
Thanks for your sweet letter. It is not often people find our website easy to navigate.

CK’s
The biggest wasp I have ever seen crashed into the inside of my van today, landing on my pants and stinging away into thin air as it was dying……Scared the bejesus out of me and that led me to your most informative site…Crimony…yours could be the entomology version of Mr. Irwin’s television show…..The manner and detail in which you answer questions is leading to enlightenment to many…..Thank you..

Hi Melissa,
We have been waiting patiently for Oprah’s people or Jay’s people to contact us for a guest appearance, but sadly, it still hasn’t happened. We relish the thought of bringing our sassy perspective on “bugs” to the masses via the airwaves.

Love your site
Dear Bug Guys,
I’ve been using your site for a little while now. I’ve even sent in a few pictures of some unknown eggs on Acer platanoides, but received no response. I’m not surprised though you guys seem so busy. I wanted to let you know how much your site helps me with my job. I work on a tree farm in Southern Ontario and it’s my job (among other things) to ID pests and disease on our trees at the farms. Your site has come in handy many times and I’ve been able to identify most ‘bugs’. I decided to grow on some Mourning Cloak Caterpillars that were destroying our Hackberry trees. Unfortunately due to my job requirements I had to destroy quite a few, but I saved some and in 10-15 days I should have some butterflies as they have just begun to develop into their chrysalis. I’ll try to send you a few pictures when they emerge. I used to grow caterpillars when I was a little girl just to see what they would turn into. Your site has re-inspired me to take up my childhood hobby. So thanks for having a wonderful site, keep up the good work. Not only do you make my job easier, you also make exploring the bug world fun. Thanks again,
Diane

Hi Diane,
It makes us feel quite guilty when we hear how disappointed people get when we can’t answer all of our mail. Hearing about disappointed children, sometimes entire classrooms of them, makes us wish we could hire a staff, but sadly, we cannot. We are intrigued with the re-inspiration of your childhood hobby of raising caterpillars, especially as we have researching the life of Maria Sibylla Merian in preparation for our lecture at the Getty. Merian used to collect caterpillars from throughout her hometown of Frankfurt and raise them so she could draw the various phases of metamorphosis. We are posting your letter to our third fanmail page.

I love your site…..but you have repeats
Your site is great and all, but there are the same bugs or the same spiders listed on the SAME page. Example: Nursery Web Spider, listed 4 times on http://www.whatsthatbug.com/spiders11.html I notice you do this a lot on many of your pages. Listing the same bug over and over.
A Truly Candid Girl (unsigned note with name taken from email)

Dear Truly Candid Girl,
We try to be a diverse as possible, but another important aspect of our site is to show current population trends as well as sighting locations. Readers ofen like to know that something seen in Maine might also be found in Georgia. We would strongly advise you not to visit our Luna Moth pages as it might drive you over the edge. We have two whole pages devoted to a single species, though related species from elsewhere in the world are also presented. We often get requests and suggestions on how to improve our site, but your letter leaves us totally baffled.

Update: (06/15/2008) A heartfelt thank-you, and a rebuttal!
Hello again.
First, I’d like to thank you for identifying the female Dobsonfly photo (on 6-12-08) that I sent in. Second, I find myself compelled to comment on the e-mail that ‘Truly Candid Girl’ sent to you on 6-14-08 about “repeats”. I’d like to say that looking at several pics of the same bugs helps me to identify them. One pic cannot possibly show all the different sides, angles, sizes, and colors of a particular bug. I think “repeats” are necessary if you truly want to learn about a bug! And last, I LOVE your site! I have always been the type of girl that highly disliked bugs, and when I would see one, I’d say “Eww, bug!” and squash it if possible. Now, I’m not saying that I’ve fallen in love with bugs, but this site has evoked a curiosity in me. Every time I see a bug that I’m not familiar with, I want to know what it is, and I always come to this site. It’s a much better alternative to swatting, squishing, or running! Thank you so much for helping me to overcome my fear bit-by-bit, and keep up the good work!
Heather P

Update: Truly Candid Girl writes back(06/16/2008)
I just think it should be a little more organized. I know a lot of people come to your site to found out what a bug is and they don’t know the name of it. Also, it’s fine if you have the same species but label the link “Luna Moth” so people know the WHOLE page is just that. When you have the links that is just the general name “spider” “spider 2″ “spider 3″ and then on those pages have the SAME spider listed on all 3 pages, it’s a little annoying. Put all that species on ONE page. I am just saying, it is easier for your visitors to found out what they are looking for. Just an idea and I think it’s a good one.

Update: Truly Candid Girls starts NAGGING
I really don’t understand why you posted the first email I sent and not the one that I sent explaining what I meant about my idea. I have a good idea. And since I wrote back again to your response, I should think the first one should be removed from the site, or this follow up email should be posted, explaining what I meant.

Ed. Comment: (06/17/2008)
We just cannot bring ourselves to continue a dialog with a Truly Candid Girl. While her first email bugged us, the subsequent naggings and demands are making us angry. Totally reorganizing our website to please one reader is just not feasible. We know we are disorganized, however, our postings do run chronologically, and the word logic is built right in.

love letter to the bugpeople
Hello there, I can’t even tell you how many bugs I’ve identified from your site. I prefer it to bugguide because I learn so much more while I’m searching for what I’m really looking for. I end up seeing some other interesting things and learning about them and soon enough (sometimes) I run into that very insect/arachnid. Thank you, thank you! For instance, this morning I was trying to ID what turned out to be a Giant Ichneumon and I ran across another photo which besides a wasp contained Cerambycid Beetle larva which I had run into last winter and completely misidentified as mud dauber larva. I love your site. Thank you so much. I know you must be swamped, so don’t feel it’s necessary to reply. Thanks again
Marielle

Dear Marielle,
Your letter put us in a very good mood today. We love hearing that our tangled method or archiving has led to identifications of some of your previous encounters, albeit through a circuitous route. We are huge fans of BugGuide and are in awe at the site’s organization, but slobs that we are here at What’s That Bug?, we doubt our own archives will ever be quite as tidy.

For the love of bugs.
Greetings!
Your site is one of the most enjoyable places I find myself coming back to over and over again. As a bug lover from the time I could stand on two feet, I have marveled at the incredible shapes, sizes and color variations of nature’s most abundant, yet often maligned creatures, the insects. As an adult, I continue to be awed by new discoveries, and find that your superb website brings an intelligent option to those who might otherwise have simply ignored or eradicated life forms they previously misunderstood. Growing up in New York City, my parents encouraged me to study insect life to a point that I joined a club of young entomologists which met monthly at The American Museum of Natural History, in Manhattan. That was many years ago, though my membership took me on some amazing summer field trips to places like Arizona, Florida, The U.S. Virgin Islands, and even Trinidad, in search of insects and their relatives. To this day I think of how very lucky I was, especially to have had parents like mine, who paid my way to go. After my teen years, which consisted of collecting and mounting insects, as was the method of preserving them to teach others, I began to see the light. That light was the one that was necessary to capture insects on film. With my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, I began trying to photograph my insect specimens on pins. Soon afterwards, on my first overseas trip, to visit an insect collector pen pal in Czechoslovakia, I purchased a 35mm SLR camera capable of taking macro photos. At age eighteen I began photographing every insect I could find, realizing that this was the way I wanted to remember these incredible creatures I came upon, without ever again doing harm to them. Today, I am a professional photographer, due to my love of insects. I travel throughout upstate New York, where I now reside, giving upwards of 100 slide lectures per year, about all sorts of wildlife that I have accumulated in photographs , over a span of three decades. My programs are illustrated with everything from mice to black bears, but when I include an insect close-up, as I often do, I always stress the importance of these basic building blocks of our natural world. Without the little things, there would not be the bigger things, like us. Once again, thanks for bringing awareness to the masses, of our wonderful world of invertebrates. "Everything you wanted to know about insects, but were afraid to ask", might be another name for your site, although What’s that bug works great. Dr. Ruth would be impressed! Yours truly,
Gerry Lemmo

Hi Gerry,
What a fabulous letter for us to read so early in the morning. Your success story is wonderful. We are posting your letter to our fanmail page where we put general letters we love that are not accompanied by photos. You sound exactly like the type of person we would love to have on our professional advisory board at the photography department at Los Angeles City College.

Love Your Site
Hi!
I always thought I was odd because I love bugs (Well, mostly anyway, except for cockroaches and silverfish. Oh! And Jerusalem crickets freak me out). As a girl, I kept an old lunchbox full of snails and frequently played with them. In my house, I am the resident get-rid-of-this-spider person and promptly capture and release the offending beast outside (my husband’s a big baby about bugs). I am trying to instill that same reverence for bugs in my children — and they (my children) are turning out to be non-squashing creatures as well (yay). I live in San Diego and found your site via Sunset Magazine and fell instantly into a mesmerized state while perusing it, much to the chagrin of my five-year-old who has been yelling at me about wanting a sandwich for the last 10 minutes. I wanted to tell you about this little, beautiful jumping spider (Eris?) I encountered up near Lake Cuyamaca. It was a pretty, bronze color and seemed so smart. She (he) followed my movements, something I discovered that these particular spiders do. It would move from one finger to another proffered finger with no reluctance at all.
The spider didn’t seem to want to leave me and actually would not get off my hand to be returned to the base of the tree at which I found it. Strangely, it seemed quite tame and I had to scrooch (is that a word?) it off my hand with my finger. Are jumping spiders (Eris anyway) always so friendly. I hate to be anthropomorphic, but, well, she was sooooo cute and such a cool spider! Thanks for taking the time to maintain your site! What a wonderful thing you do. I have bookmarked your site and you are now one of seven of my bookmarks! What an honor!!!
Denise

Hi Denise,
We are happy you found us in Sunset Magazine and like our site. Jumping Spiders have excellent eyesight and seem to be fearless. As to their being friendly, we suppose friendship is in the eyes of the beholder.

ANOTHER WEBSITE IS HACKING INTO YOURS
please read this for your own sake!!! on your centipedes page on the bottom of the page there is a link to a porn site that you should get rid of before someone else (little kids, families, schools, ect) see it. the link is hamburgerla and it is discusting sincierly,
RP

Dear RP,
Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. We were once affiliated with hamburgerla.com, since our friend was reviewing eateries in LA that served burgers. He obviously let the license expire and his site was purchased by an adult content site. We are mortified that we did not know of this sooner. Thankfully, the link was only on our two centipede pages and the millipede page. The problem is now corrected.