Amazing green cicada
Location: Campinas, São Paulo/Brazil
March 7, 2011 10:56 am
Hi Daniel! Now i’m back to ask you about this species of cicada i found in my city (i really don’t know the species, but it seems to belong to the genus Carineta). Its size is about 3/4 inches, and it’s fully green! Sorry posting a copyrighted picture below, but it’s the only one i found with a better angle to show you the green cicada (i copied from Mongabay.com, where it was written: ”You may print this image for personal use. Provided the mongabay.com logo is not removed, you may post this picture on your web site — a link back is appreciated — and use it for school projects and powerpoints. If you are interested in using this photograph in a publication, please contact me. Please reference the URL of this photo in your email. High resolution versions may be available and it may be possible to make this image available on a t-shirt or other products.”).
Here’s the URL for the picture:
http://travel.mongabay.com/malaysia/images/borneo_5160.html
Would you identify it for me?
Thanks a lot!!!
Signature: Franco (Cicada Lover)
Cicada
Hi Franco,
Since your Cicada is from Brazil, and the image from Monga Bay is from Borneo, other than the green coloration, we are not convinced they necessarily have any close relation. We will post the link to Monga Bay, but not the photo so our readership can easily compare images. We hope we can eventually provide you with a species identification.
¶ Posted 07 March 2011 § Cicadas ‡ ° Also tagged: Infestation of caterpillars
Unknown Caterpillars
Infestation of caterpillars
Location: hawaii, big island
February 27, 2011 6:52 pm
Help…i live in hawaii, and in the 7 years i have been there i have never seen anything like these caterpillars…there seems to be a fe different types, none of which i can identify, but they are everywhere, even inside! what do i do, what are they
Signature: ryan Williamson
Unknown Caterpillars
Dear Ryan,
Alas, your photos are quite blurry, but we believe there is a resemblance between your caterpillars and the members of the subfamily Erebinae, which includes the Underwings. You can see some of these North American species of Moths on BugGuide. Many endemic species on Hawaii are being displaced by opportunistic invasive exotic species, and it is entirely possible that these caterpillars have been introduced. Often populations of insects peak during certain years, and it is also possible that this is a native species that has suddenly experienced a population explosion due to ideal conditions. Knowing the plant that they are feeding upon may help with the identification.
Unknown Caterpillar Outbreak
thanks for your response…i can tell you they are eating (almost exclusivly) what we call “Christmas berry” trees, or “brazilian Pepper”, or “Florida holly”….i heard the trees called all of these names…its a sappy tree, with red pepper corn berries, white blossoms, and an invasive tree itself. There are hundreds of acres of this tree where i live….They(caterpillars) do not like oleander, but are eating orchids as well….hope this helps to identify them better…there seems to be a few different types of caterpillars, but they may be different aged or something….any ideas what to do to get rid of them?
Funny KNP Bug
Location: Kruger National Park, Southern area
February 27, 2011 4:35 am
Good Day,
We were in KNP on 19/02/2011, driving on the Pabeni road towards skukuza when this fellow appeared in the car. I only had a few seconds and manage to get two makro shot before it rushed off. THus far no one can tell me what it is.
Please help.
Signature: Marius Smit
Immature True Bug
Hi Marius,
We needed to first research the location of Kruger National Park, which we now know is in South Africa. This is an immature True Bug in the suborder Heteroptera, but beyond that, we haven’t a clue. Often the immature stages of an insect’s life cycle are not well documented, and many times, especially with regards to insects in remote locations, the immature stages are completely unknown to science. Hopefully we or our readership will have some luck trying to research what species this immature nymph belongs to.
Immature True Bug
¶ Posted 28 February 2011 § True Bugs ‡ ° Also tagged: Camouflaged katydid from Peru
Location: Shima, near Satipo, Junin, Peru
February 27, 2011 5:47 am
This katydid appears to be camouflaged for a lichen environment. It came to a moth light in Junin state, Peru. Can anyone please help me find the species?
Signature: Peter Bruce-Jones
Katydid
Hi Peter,
Several years ago, we posted a photo of a Moss Mimic Katydid from Costa Rica, and if you look at that posting, you will see some similarities, but we don’t believe this is the same species. We will try to contact Katydid expert Piotr Naskrecki to see if he can properly identify your species.
Comment from Piotr Naskrecki
Hi Daniel,
This is an almost certainly undescribed species of the tribe Dysonini (Phaneropterinae), possibly Machima sp. It is a very poorly known group of katydids, and virtually nothing is known about their biology, other than their remarkable mimicry of lichens.
Cheers,
Piotr
¶ Posted 27 February 2011 § Katydids ‡ ° Also tagged: unidentified caterpillar
Location: Geita Villiage, Mwanza, Tanzania
February 17, 2011 3:07 am
Hi, my daughter spotted this brightly coloured fellow on our garden path we thought it was litter because of the colour. Its the end of the rainy season in Geita, Mwanza which is in north western Tanzania. He did not move very much although produced large quantities of black gunk when we picked him up and he was only about 3cm long. We have seen a most beautiful large butterfly in the garden with this unusual colouring, is it related?
Signature: Sandra Wronsley
Unknown Blue Caterpillar
Dear Sandra,
At first glance we thought this might be a Giant Silk Moth Caterpillar in the family Saturniidae, but your statement that is is only 3 centimeters long caused us to second guess that idea. Our second guess was that this might be a Stinging Slug Caterpillar in the family Limacodidae so we wrote to Bill Oehlke who runs the World’s Greatest Saturniidae Site to get his opinion. Bill wrote back: “Daniel, I agree with your assessments, but we could be wrong.“ We are going to post your caterpillar and tag it as unidentified in the hope that someone may be able to provide additional information. We strongly doubt that this blue caterpillar will metamorphose into the large butterfly you sighted, but that is pure conjecture since there is no photo of the butterfly and the caterpillar is unidentified, though we do believe it is probably a Moth Caterpillar.
Interesting caterpillar
Location: Orange, California
February 7, 2011 3:15 am
I was outside today gardening and hanging out with my cats when I saw this caterpillar in the garden. At first I thought nothing of it because I rarely see caterpillars in my garden on grass growing between bricks and I didn’t think it was one because of the shape and where it was. (I’m not sure where it came from because we had been cutting, trimming and removing plants from our garden.) But I went back and to my surprise it had a fat head/neck. And on further inspection It was black with yellow stripes. And small little yellow spots. It kind of reminded me of an army worm but I don’t think it is because of the body/head shape and plus it was so small. I took it to my butterfly bush and hope to see if I can find it tomorrow.
Signature: Samantha
Unknown Caterpillar
Hi Samantha,
We tried browsing through the Cutworms in the very large subfamily Noctuinae on BugGuide to no avail. We are so amused by your photos that we are posting them in the hope that one of our readers may eventually supply us with a species identification. Your Caterpillar makes an interesting fashion accessory.
Unknown Caterpillar
Followup Query
June 5, 2011 2:08 am
Hi, I sent these pics to you in feburary and was wondering if you got any information on them? I’m still interested in knowing what kind of caterpillar this is. Thank you..
Samantha
Hi Samantha,
We did not have any luck in our initial attempt to identify this caterpillar, and unfortunately, none of our readers ever supplied us with an identification. Sorry to disappoint you. Sometimes identifications eventually happen months or years after the initial posting.
Treehopper from Peru
Location: Shima, near Satipo, Junin, Peru
February 5, 2011 2:43 pm
Can anyone please identify this treehopper found in central Peru?
Signature: Peter Bruce-Jones
Treehopper
Hi Peter,
This is one beautiful Treehopper in the family Membracidae. We have a vague memory of having received an image of this species, or a very similar species, in the past. We will attempt to search our archive to provide a species identification. Just a note that if you provide a comment on this posting, you will be notified in the future if anyone comments or provides an identification. We did locate a matching photo on Corbis Images, but the species is not identified.
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