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Jumping Spider eats Soldier Fly

Jumping spider with black soldier fly
Location: Tennessee, suburb east of Nashville
August 13, 2011 9:03 am
Hello!
I recently used your site to identify the large harmless insects and their grubs that we’ve been seeing in the house the last few years (ever since I unsuccessfully tried to start composting) as Black Soldier Flies (who, of course, think the compost box is quite nice!) I thought you might enjoy this picture I took last summer of a jumping spider carrying a Black Soldier Fly. If a spider could look proud, then this one certainly would…
Signature: Andrea

jumping spider eats soldier fly andrea 300x225 Jumping Spider eats Soldier Fly

Jumping Spider eats Soldier Fly

Hi Andrea,
Thanks for sending us your photo of a Jumping Spider eating a Black Soldier Fly.  You have got to be our last identification this morning, and if we post anything else in the next few hours, we are obviously procrastinating something else that we need to get done.

Posted 13 August 2011 § Jumping Spiders § Soldier Flies ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Robber Fly eats House Fly

What’s this fly? It looks mean
Location: Janesville, IA
August 12, 2011 12:20 pm
This fly was outside on my porch. I initially took a series of pictures and it was just the fly. When I returned, it looked like it had caught a house fly and was consuming it. It’s big, about an inch long. It looks like a cross between a fly and a cricket. I really need to buy an insect book.
Thanks.
Signature: Jill Lockey

robber fly eats house fly jill 300x182 Robber Fly eats House Fly

Robber Fly eats House Fly

Hi Jill,
The predator in your photo is a Robber Fly.  Robber Flies are adept at capturing prey on the wing.  If you want an excellent identification guide, consider Eric Eaton’s Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America, and Daniel is very proud of his first book, a pop culture tome on insects entitled The Curious World of Bugs.  We can’t believe we don’t have a House Fly category, and now is an excellent time to remedy that.

Thanks for the ID and the suggestions on bug books. I will check those out.
JILL

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Posted 12 August 2011 § Horse Flies and Deer Flies § House Flies ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

Immature Giant Water Bugs exhibit cannibalistic behavior

yellow bettle? aquatic?
Location: Raymond, California
August 7, 2011 3:45 pm
I saw these two insects this morning in one of our creeks. They were both approximately the same length, but obviously different colors. The yellow one was firmly grasping the dark one – mating? Predation?
I am clueless on ids for both of them. Any ideas?
Signature: Megan Ralph

abedus herberti food chain megan 2 300x206 Immature Giant Water Bugs exhibit cannibalistic behavior

Giant Water Bug Nymphs compete for meal

Hi Megan,
We are confident that we have identified your insects as two immature individuals of a species of Giant Water Bug in the genus Abedus, based on this image of Abedus herberti posted to BugGuide.  The yellow individual in your photos and the BugGuide image are newly molted nymphs in the teneral stage, meaning that their exoskeleton has not yet hardened and darkened.  Insects are especially vulnerable immediately after metamorphosis.  We believe the dark individual in your photos, also a nymph, is taking advantage of its weaker coeval by preying upon it.  Of course, your photos do not reveal the final outcome, and the teneral individual may have actually been the victor in this food chain drama.  BugGuide has a wealth of information on Abedus herberti, including this listed range:  “Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, USA; northern Mexico” and this listed habitat:  “Freshwater streams, especially in montane areas. They often inhabit intermittent streams, so they are isolated to individual rock pools (tinajas) during dry periods when streams do not exhibit overland flow.”  This interesting note of food may explain the cannibalistic behavior that your photo illustrates:  “All water bugs are predators. Abedus herberti eats other insects, small fish, small tadpoles, and will become cannibalistic when other food is scarce.”  One final bit of information from BugGuide indicates that this might actually be a closely related species from California, Abedus indentatus:  “Abedus is a difficult genus in which to identify species without a microscope for close examination. A. heberti is similar in appearance to most other Abedus species, but it is most similar to Abedus indentatus. A. indentatus is typically only found in California.”  BugGuide has a dearth of information on the California species.

abedus herberti food chain megan 300x206 Immature Giant Water Bugs exhibit cannibalistic behavior

Cannibalistic tendencies in Giant Water Bug nymphs

Thank you so much for your detailed and extremely informative reply.  That is the perfect description for the habitat where I saw them – a small stream that is beginning to dry up (rather late in the year actually – it was a wet spring).
Megan

Posted 11 August 2011 § Toe Biters and other Aquatic True Bugs ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Red Footed Cannibalfly dines on Paper Wasp

Cicada killer?
Location: Doylestown PA/ Stephens City VA
August 10, 2011 6:31 am
Greetings!
I have what I believe are cicada killer wasps living in my backyard:dirt mounds with tunnels, siting of very large(3 inches) insect like the one in the photo going into said mound. Meanwhile, my neice in VA took a pic that looks exactly like the critter I saw going into the mounds.My questions are: is this a photo on a cicada killer female, and what is going on in this photo?
Signature: Deb Kerns

cannibalfly eats wasp deb 225x300 Red Footed Cannibalfly dines on Paper Wasp

Red Footed Cannibalfly dines on Paper Wasp

Hi Deb,
The behavior you describe is consistent with that of Cicada Killers, however, the predator in the attached photo is a Robber Fly known as a Red Footed Cannibalfly.  It is feeding on a Paper Wasp.  Red Footed Cannibalflies would not be building underground nests, so despite the striped abdomen, if you compare this predator with this Cicada Killer image from our archives, you will see the apparent differences between the two insects.  The Cicada Killer is a much more robust insect.  Not having a photo in front of you and trusting your memory might be creating a false similarity between the two species.

Posted 10 August 2011 § Cicada Killer Wasps § Paper Wasps § Robber Flies ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

Golden Orbweaver snares Horse Fly

Black and Yellow Orb Weaver (male and female?)
Location: Milton, DE
August 7, 2011 9:27 pm
Heya Bugman!
My boyfriend and I found this gorgeous Orb Weaver while vacationing in Delaware this weekend. While we were taking photos of her, that black flying insect (any idea what it is?) got caught in her web. She was lightning-fast and had him wrapped up in seconds! A few hours later, we saw her snacking on her tasty meal. Bug on bug carnage!
We also caught a glimpse of a smaller spider nearby with similar coloring. The male, perhaps? Hoping you can identify that guy for us! Thanks!
Signature: Bruce and Ren

argiope bruce 221x300 Golden Orbweaver snares Horse Fly

Golden Orbweaver female

Hi again Bruce and Ren,
The Black and Yellow Orbweaver, Argiope aurantia, has several other common names and we generally prefer the name Golden Orbweaver.  That Fly looks awfully familiar, but we have been unable to correctly identify it at the time of posting.  It doesn’t match any of the Horse Flies we checked on BugGuide, nor could we match it to any Mydas Flies.  We will continue to research its identity.  We cannot say for certain if the smaller spider is a male, but this large female Golden Orbweaver looks to be filling with eggs.

argiope eats fly bruce 300x233 Golden Orbweaver snares Horse Fly

Golden Orbweaver snares Fly

As we were responding, we noticed you sent additional images and the smaller spider does appear to be a male Argiope aurantia.

argiope aurantia male bruce 300x198 Golden Orbweaver snares Horse Fly

Male Golden Orbweaver

Eric Eaton assists with Horse Fly identification
Daniel:
It is definitely a large female horse fly, maybe Tabanus atratus.  The “white” abdomen could be an artifact of the reflection of intense sunlight.
Eric

Hey again Daniel!
Horse fly makes definite sense to us. They’re everywhere near the beach in Delaware, as my very bitten up legs and arms can attest to!  And Eric’s theory of intense sunlight is spot-on.  Another picture we have shows nothing but black on the abdomen, so it’s entirely likely that I just caught the right angle to have the sun shining off the shiny part of the fly’s abdomen.  As for the spiders, we’re shocked!  We were speculating that it might be the male due to the similar coloring, but he was so small we nearly missed him and his web.  It’s hard to believe such a large spider and such a tiny spider are different genders of the same species!  Do the males make the stabillimentum as well?  We didn’t notice one in his web.  We really appreciate your help with identifying our interesting critters.  And thanks again for your amazing website!
Bruce and Ren

Hi again Bruce and Ren,
This BugGuide image nicely illustrates the size difference between the sexes of the Golden Orbweaver.  In most species of Orbweavers, the female is the larger of the pair, and in some species the size difference is noticeably great.  We have not seen any photos of male Golden Orbweavers with a stabilimentum.

 

Posted 08 August 2011 § Flies § Orb Weavers ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

European Hornet Kills Dragonfly

Cicada Killer Carnage!
Location: Milton, DE
August 7, 2011 9:34 pm
Hello again Bugman!!
On our recent vacation to Delaware, we also were lucky enough to catch this awesome bug on bug carnage, which we think is a Cicada Killer making a meal of a dragon fly. We also took some video of it since my boyfriend thinks these bugs are absolutely awesome. Poor dragonfly had his head ripped clean off!
We were wondering why it went after a dragonfly, however. Perhaps the coloring being close to that of the cicada made it confused? Or do they regularly snack on other bugs?
Thanks again!!
Signature: Bruce and Ren

hornet eats dragonfly bruce 300x244 European Hornet Kills Dragonfly

European Hornet Kills Dragonfly

Dear Bruce and Ren,
You have mistaken a European Hornet, Vespa crabro, for a Cicada Killer, which explains why the prey in your Food Chain images is not a Cicada.  According to BugGuide, they are:  “Predatory on other insects, used to feed young. Also girdle twigs to drink sap.”  We cannot explain why the Dragonfly was killed and decapitated, and then abandoned.  Insects are not prone to killing for the sake of killing.  They either defend themselves or kill to eat or to provide food for their offspring.  We wonder why the European Hornet killed and decapitated the Dragonfly and then abandoned it.  Possibly it was disturbed by the camera.  Perhaps one of our readers will have the time to identify the species of dragonfly.

decapitated dragonfly bruce 300x225 European Hornet Kills Dragonfly

Decapitated Dragonfly

Daniel,
After browsing your site for a bit we started to suspect our bug may have been a hornet when we saw the coloring wasn’t quite right for a cicada killer. We’re glad to have our suspicions confirmed. We were surprised, though, as the hornet was flying around us while we were throwing a frisbee, and did not seem in the slightest aggressive, even when we got close to take pictures (and we were close enough to hear the crunching! Yuck!). Still an awesome sight we were glad to stumble upon. I forgot to mention, that particular bug was seen at the Prime Hook Wildlife Reserve in Milton, DE. Great place to visit. Thanks again for your help!
Bruce and Ren

 

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Posted 08 August 2011 § Dragonflies and Damselflies § Hornets and Yellow Jackets ‡ Comments (4) ° Also tagged:

Cockroach preys upon molting Cicada

Cockroach Eating Cicada
Location: Central Kentucky
August 4, 2011 9:56 pm
I thought you would enjoy this picture I took one night of a cockroach munching on a cicada while the cicada was molting. Cockroaches are certainly opportunistic.
Signature: Amelia

cockroach eats cicada amelia 199x300 Cockroach preys upon molting Cicada

Wood Cockroach eats molting Cicada

Hi Amelia,
Thank you so much for sending this amazing documentation.  We don’t normally think of Cockroaches as being predators, but this lends credence to the popular concept that they can and will eat most anything.  It appears that the Cockroach might be a Pennsylvania Wood Cockroach based on the markings around the pronotum.  Check BugGuide for a comparison.

Eric Eaton provides and alternate theory
Yep, a male Parcoblatta pennsylvanica.  I’m thinking the cicada is already dead (got stuck while molting) or it is just the exuviae itself.  Roaches are rarely, if ever, predators.
Eric

Posted 05 August 2011 § Cicadas § Cockroaches ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

Thread-Waisted Wasp paralyzes Caterpillar

Wasp burying a worm
Location: Grants Pass, OR
August 4, 2011 12:57 pm
I took a series of pictures of a wasp digging a hole, burying a worm it dragged into teh hole and then covering the hole up. I know that the worm will be food for the larvae of this wasp, but I had never seen the process.
Are you at all interested in this series of photos? If so, I’d be happy to send them to you. I have included one as a sample.
Signature: Lucy

threadwaist wasp caterpillar lucy 300x215 Thread Waisted Wasp paralyzes Caterpillar

Thread-Waisted Wasp paralyzes Caterpillar

Hi Lucy,
This is a Thread-Waisted Wasp in the genus Ammophila (see BugGuide), and it is carrying back a Caterpillar for its brood, not a worm.  If you want to attach a few more choice images, we can add to this posting.

ammophila seals nest lucy 300x226 Thread Waisted Wasp paralyzes Caterpillar

Thread-Waisted Wasp seals nest

Of course, you’re right – it’s a caterpillar. I’m going to buy your book so I won’t be so casual about worm v. caterpillar!
I hope someone finds these pictures to be interesting. It’s so amazing what’s going on at our feet and all around if we’ll just stop a minute and take a look. Thank you for your site. I appreciate the work you do!
Lucy

ammophila seals nest lucy 2 300x206 Thread Waisted Wasp paralyzes Caterpillar

Thread-Waisted Wasp inspects nest

Hi again Lucy,
Thank you so much for supplying additional images.  We believe your Thread-Waisted Wasp looks like this unidentified species in the genus Ammophila that is posted to BugGuide.  It is from Oregon, but insects don’t really recognize borders identified by humans.

Posted 04 August 2011 § moth caterpillars § Thread Waisted Wasps ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

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