What’s That Bug?
Hi,
Just out of curiosity — enclosed is a bug/fly/bee picture I took just a few minutes ago. Can you make out what it is? At first, I thought it was the Virescent Green Metallic Bee, but the green on this fella is not metallic – it’s just bright green. And, it doesn’t have big hairy legs. Also, it doesn’t have the 3-part segmented body like a bee would have. It’s about 1.5 inches long (from tip of the head to the tail) and maybe slightly less than half an inch wide (you can make a rough comparison with the blue standard-sized Kong doggie rubber bone). I tried Googling for more information about this insect — unfortunately, I can’t find anything that’s remotely close to this big fella. And instead, I found your website. 
Oh, just in case this might help, I’m from Melbourne, Australia. Thanks!
Cheers!
Lynn
Minutes later: Oops! I found out what this is already — it’s a cicada! Sorry to trouble you!
Hi Lynn,
We are very happy you figured out this beauty is a Cicada. The photo isn’t detailed enough to be certain, but it might be a Green Grocer, Cyclochila virens.
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Posted 25 October 2006
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Cicadas
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king crickets
Hi guys,
I have been searching the web trying to find information on these guys other wise called wetas. I can find lots on the New Zealand version but we are in Brisbane QLD. I have two variations at the moment but we are not sure if their colour variation means that they are a sub species or just that their colour varies. The three I have are only on loan for a week, so I can photograph them. I would however like to know a little more about their habits, like how long they live? I have a couple of pics of only one variety that I shall attach to this email. If you can offer any info or point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Sam
Hi Sam,
We really don’t know much about Wetas, also called Saddleback Bush Crickets. They are not true crickets, and are in the same family as the Jerusalem Cricket or Potato Bug found in the arid regions of the American Southwest. Try searching our Potato Bug page for old links to Weta information.
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Posted 21 October 2006
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Potato Bugs
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Also tagged:
Flesh Fly, Phasmid and moth
Hello there… I sent a photo of a Flesh Fly from Sydney to you yesterday – although at that time I didn’t know what kind of fly it was. I don’t think I saw any spiny leaf insects on your website, so here’s a link to an article I’ve written which shows my daughter’s classroom pets (phasmids), the flesh fly again, and an unknown small moth.. (please help on that last count Cheers,
Chris.
Hi Chris,
Sorry, we are really able to only post a fraction of the letters we receive. Your letter requires downloading and posting photos to three different pages on our site as well as the homepage, a taks that will take nearly a half an hour, right now the allotted time we have for the entire website. We are posting your Spiny Leaf Insect, Extatosoma tiaratum, and linking to your site.
A weevil looking beetle with horny back
Hi. I looked through all your beetles and I think this one must be a "gorgojo" a type of Weevil from the family Curculionidae. I found it on my wheelie bin in the back yard. Atherton, Queensland, Australia, in the middle of the day. If you ever have time, can you let me know for sure. I see them from time to time. Pretty darn cute ( but I still don’t want to touch it!) Thanks, much appreciated,
susan.
Hi Susan,
This is a Weevil, but we do not know the species.
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Posted 07 September 2006
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Weevils
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Hows this for an Aussie slug
We breed them big here in Queensland. This slug was spotted climbing a tree in our garden by us on the way home from our favorite Chinese / Vietnamese restaurant. There had been a good bit of rain (for a change) and this remarkable creature was climbing into the treetops to start munching. I nearly got out the Dettol (a disinfectant spray we use to dispatch the cane toad, an alien pest imported to get rid of the cane toad beetle that has since become an environmental disaster). On closer inspection we were impressed with the bugger and did a bit of Googling (as you do) and found your web site. So here are the images of the Red Triangle Slug from our garden.
Gillian & Len
Queensland, (Australia)
Hi Gillian and Len,
Thanks for your awesome image. The first time we saw an image of mating Red Triangle Slugs, we thought someone had painted them.
Yellow Jacket Hover Fly
Here are some more pictures from Eagle River, Alaska. These are a hover fly that is an excellent yellow jacket mimic. Their front legs are black and they usually hold them out in front and wave them about like yellow jacket antennae. The other four legs are yellow like a yellow jacket. In these pictures, it is hard to see the front legs, as he is using them to eat. These are very hard to distinguish from the local yellow jackets. The only reason they are easy to spot this year is there are no yellow jackets near my house. We had a late, cold spring, followed by a hot dry summer, and all the yellow jackets and hornets seem to have died off. Last year, there were so many that my yard had a constant loud hum from the thousands of yellow jackets. Anyway, all the yellow jacket mimics really stand out this year (like the wasp moth I sent last month). Also, here is another hover fly. The color morphology was different from the others I have seen on your site, so I thought you would like to add them to your collection. Finally, here are two beetles on a wild prickly rose. I’m not really looking for an ID, I just thought it was a neat picture and figured you’d like it. (sorry about the black specks, the image sensor was dirty and I was using a very small aperture). I’m sure you are swamped with bug pictures right now, but would you be interested in a CD of some of the better ones from this summer? I could send you one this winter after things slow down a bit.
-David
ps. If anyone is interested, the camera used was a Canon EOS 5D with a EF – 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens and MT-24 Macro Flash
Hi David,
Yes, we really are swamped right now, but there seems to never be a slow time. Winter in US means summer in Australia, and we get many requests from Down Under. WE feel guilty when we do not respond to your letters, but we have a better request than you sending us a CD. A CD would not have an explanatory letter and we like having information. Please limit your submissions to one insect, or type of insect, per letter. It makes it so difficult to get your letters with four or five wonderful images that need to be posted on numerous pages so we procrastinate, then forget. Off the tops of our heads, we cannot even recall the Wasp Moth you mention in this letter. Did we post it? If not, please resend with information. Meanwhile, we are happy to post your unidentified Alaskan Hover Flies. The Yellow Jacket mimic might be the genus Chrysotoxum.
Unknown Bug
Hello,
many thanks for your great website and service. Can you help us to identify this bug? Please see the attached pic. We live in Western Austria.Thank you very much
Hartmut Haefele
Hi Hartmut,
We get many letters from people who want to know what the “T Bug” is. It is a species of Plume Moth in the family Pterophoridae.
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Posted 01 August 2006
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Moths
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Atteva sp?
Dear Bugman,
I suspect this is an Atteva sp. (refer attached pics). Please confirm.?Could you give the species name and also the general duration for its life cycle. It was found infesting Eurycoma longifolia.? hope to hear from you soon. kind regards??
Norman
Hi Norman,
You have done your research nicely. We located a few matches for Atteva and Eurycoma online, but sadly, the URLs were no longer active. The specis is Atteva sciodoxa, but we couldn’t locate a photo. One site listed the moth in Thailand. We also located some very similar looking moths in the genus from Australia. Alas, you provided us with no location information.
sorry bugman, i realised that after i sent the email. The location was in Malaysia. thanks, i also suspected it to be Atteva sciodoxa after googling it, but as you said, the sites were no longer active and I couldnt find the pics to compare. cheers
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Posted 25 July 2006
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Moths
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Hello
Since sending my request for help in identifying a black bodied -orange headed beetle, I have found it as a "Rove beetle" – As yet I have been unable to find the particular type but at least now I have something to go on! Please ignore my request of yesterday … I’m sure you have plenty of things to do. I came across this guy attached, in the garden next door (Toowoomba Australia). it is about 15-18mm long – I have hunted around the web trying to find it but so far with no joy:-( – Maybe you know it? Most appreciative of any help…..
Keith Power
Toowoomba Q
Australia
Hi Keith,
You are correct that this is a Rove Beetle. It will take us some research to give you a species, but there are so many physically similar species that might be impossible.
Update (12/05/2007)
Australian Rove Beetle
Hi there,
the rove beetle you have an image of on your website, the one with the bright orange head, is Creophilus erythrocephalus (Fabricius). I am revising that genus of rove beetles. Cheers,
Dave Clarke
PhD Candidate
University of Illinois at Chicago
Zoology, Division of Insects
The Field Museum
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Posted 23 May 2006
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Beetles
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Weird Slugs
Hi there,
These two bizarre creatures appeared outside our front door this morning. The photo’s are low-res because I took them with my mobile phone. The patterns you can see are as I saw them, in red and orange. There was a hole in the side of each slug within each pattern. Could you please tell me what they are? I have never seen coloured patterns such as these on any living creature, so I am keen to hear what you have to say!
Thanks,
Simon
Hi Simon,
We agree this is bizarre, but we don’t even know where to begin to reseach since you haven’t provided any global coordinates.
Hi, thanks for the reply. I’m in Sydney, Australia. Thanks,
Simon Edwards
Red triangle slugs
(05/17/2006) Hi Bugman, The two slugs in your recent photo (two days or so ago) look to me like Red Triangle Slugs from Australia.
http://www.amonline.net.au/sand/news/slugs.htm
Alli
Hi Alli,
Thank you so much for sending us the link to the Australian Museum Online which has this to say about the Red Triangle Slug: “Red Triangle Slug from Wallahra, Central Coast, New South Wales. Photo:
What are these bugs?
Hi – I took these pictures a few months ago with a Canon MP-E 65mm lens and MT-24EX flash. Actual size is about 6mm long? When in flight they appear to hover, not at all like the usual flies around here (Melbourne, Australia)
Adam
Hi Adam,
Identifying Flies is not our strong point, and we don’t even want to venture a guess at an Australian species. Your photos rock bigtime. Eric Eaton weighed in with this information: “The mating Australian flies are likely something in the family Platysomatidae, or the closely-related Otitidae (sometimes referred to as Ulidiidae). I know, clear as mud! Don’t blame me, I don’t make the taxonomic rules.”.
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Posted 14 May 2006
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Flies
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Also tagged:
Mystery spider
Hi there Bugman.
I spotted this 7" – 8" spider while I was travelling through Malaysia a couple of years ago. I believe it to be some kind of golden weaver because of the very visible colour of the silk in the photo, which I was told by an Australian guy who knows about spiders. I would love to more about this particular genus of spider as I’ve had no luck in finding matching spider images on the net.
Kind regards
Daniel Kemp
Hi Daniel,
This spider is in the genus Nephila, the Golden Silk Spiders. We believe this is a female Nephila clavata, the Golden Orb Web Spider, which we have identified in Korea and also ranges in China. If not Nephila clavata, it is a closely related species. The silk truly does look golden in your photo.
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Posted 12 May 2006
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Spiders
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