Insect with Fungus?
February 3, 2010
Is there an insect that normally looks “dusty?” Or is this fungus?
This insect was alive in December when it was found inside a house. No others were found. It was about 6 mm long. It may have been more plump before it was kept in a pill bottle for over a week.
Doug Cheever
Dubuque, Iowa
Masked Hunter
Hi Doug,
The surface of an immature Masked Hunter is sticky and it attracts lint and dust which helps to camouflage this predator.
Content Use in Magazine
I love your website and was interested in publishing info about 1 bug in a local inflight magazine here in Costa Rica. It’s a bimonthly publication that reaches about 75,000 people per edition. We would credit your website and include the URL with each featured bug. It would also be translated into Spanish (bilingual pub.). Would this be of interest to you?
Claire Saylor
http://www.naturelandings.com
Yes. Please provide additional details. Do you want to use images from the website? Content from the website?
Thanks
Daniel Marlos
Dear Daniel,
Thank you for your quick response! The idea would be to post it in the same Q&A format that you use with the photo submitted by the reader (we could probably find the species picture elsewhere if that poses a problem, but the details are key to show what part of CR the bug is found in). It would only be 5 total bugs (1 per edition) as a side bar. If you have any other ideas please send them on, and I hope to hear from you soon!
Regards,
Claire Saylor
OR — I can submit a bug picture with an answer from you guys to start the section and we get our readers to submit future photos so it wouldn’t be reproduction and both your website and our magazine can publish the answer. Tell me if you prefer this option!
Claire
Hi again Claire,
I am fine with the photos and credit being used provided there is a credit. Clicking the photos on the posting will provide a larger file that would probably be better for print. Older postings do not have that feature, so the images on the website are smaller. If you want to submit photos for use on the website, that is also fine, but as summer approaches, the number of letters greatly increases, and unless you catch my attention (putting Daniel in the subject line as well as the subject helps) letters might get overlooked.
Thanks for your interest.
Daniel
Dear Daniel,
That sounds great! I appreciate your interest in collaborating. How would you like the credit to read? Two options are I could write a short intro about teaming up with Whats That Bug and put your website URL at the bottom, Or just write a formal credit line: “This information was provided courtesy of www.Whatsthatbug.com, for more information on Costa Rican insects, visit their website”
Our next edition doesn’t come out till April so there’s some time to think it through!
Best regards,
Claire Saylor
Adult Antlion
February 3, 2010
I photographed this adult antlion a little past midnight on Dec 22, 2009 on Necker Island, BVI. I was wondering what particular species it was.
Donald Gudehus
Necker Island, British Virgin Islands
Antlion
Hi Donald,
The exact species identification of this lovely Antlion would be a job for a specialist in Neuropterans, or even more specifically, a specialist in Myrmeleontids. Alas, we here at What’s That Bug? do not fit that bill, but perhaps a Myrmeleontidist will write in with a response.
Butterfly ID
February 2, 2010
Shot this on a sunny day in an aboriginal village in Pertak. Could you please help id this specie as I couldn’t find it in Corbet & Pendlebury”s Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula.
Buttefly lover
Malaysia
The Rustic
Dear Butterfly Lover,
This is one of the Brush Footed Butterflies in the family Nymphalidae, but we are uncertain of the species. First we searched the Butterflies of Malaysia website without any luck. Then we tried the Malaysia Butterfly Checklist, but many of the thumbnails are of the closed wing view. In clicking through those, we believe you have photographed a Rustic, Cupha erymanthis lotis. The Malaysia Butterfly Checklist provides this information: “The Rustic is a relatively common species which stays within the vicinity of the nature reserves. It is often spotted close to where its host plant, Flacourtia rukam can be found. The Rustic is an orange-brown butterfly with a characteristic broad yellow discal patch on the forewings followed by a broad black apical area. In flight, it can sometimes be mistaken for the Banded Yeoman (Cirrochroa orissa orissa). In Singapore, the Banded Yeoman is much rarer.  The Rustic is an active butterfly and usually appears on sunny days. It is an alert butterfly and is difficult to photograph as it flits from leaf to leaf and rarely stops for long. Even when alighted on a perch, its wings are often moving continuously, ready to take off at the slightest distraction.  The underside of this species is paler than the upperside, but with similar markings as above.“
So you think you’ve got bedbugs? Don’t jump the gun.
February 3, 2010
Dear Bugman,
Thank you for just being you. This is a wonderful blog. I will spare you my gushing, but suffice it to say that this experience has turned me from a bug hater to a bug enthusiast! Here’s my little story:
I was doing a little(overdue) cleaning under my bed last Sunday, and pulled out a cotton sock that had little bugs on it. I admit, I panicked. I found more in and on a broken umbrella that I meant to throw away, and immediately ran to bag those things and put them outside. I have noticed that bedbugs have been getting a lot of press these days, so I assumed that’s what they were. I completely flipped out and commenced to cleaning my whole room top to bottom, baseboards first. I found another smaller nest of them under/behind st of drawers on a couple of cotton balls in a little nest of cathair, human hair, and dust. I have two cats that live indoors, so my bedroom had quite a bit of cathair on the floor. Gross, I know, but these bugs were loving it I guess. It’s like a Vegas buffet in there!
Anyway, I did a lot of internet research after I flipped out (bagging my mattresses and boiling my sheets) and began to think that maybe I had something that’s not a bedbug.
I hadn’t gotten any real bites that I was aware of, but I deduced the ‘bedbugs’ must be feeding off my cat, Prissy, who happens to have a bald, itchy belly right now. I also found one, lone bug between my boxpring and mattress. I found a few more around the plastic reinforcing corner on my boxspring. That was my confirmation that I needed to evacuate. Besides that, I was itching like crazy just thinking about them.
Today I finally found a few that I had not yet dispatched (sorry) so we had a little photoshoot. They are either very sleepy or dead, because the ones that were not just casings (or skeletons) don’t move a lot that I can tell.
While I was under my chest of drawers (also wood, like my headboard, and used) I saw a brighter, more active bug with orangey black striped/spotted wings. Again, I was freaking when I saw that, so into the trash it went.
After I looked at the pictures I took, I thought I may have carpet beetle larvae instead of the dreaded bedbug. I am praying that you can confirm this! Thanks for your time, and keep up the great work.
Jen in TN
Pulaski, Tennessee, USA (Mid-South USA)
Carpet Beetle Larvae
Good Morning Jen,
It must give you such pleasure to awake in such a clean bedroom. If only we would be similarly inspired to thoroughly clean our own room, we would probably find some Carpet Beetle Larvae as well. Goodness knows how many we would find in our own cat’s favorite hiding place in the back of the closet. You are correct that these are Carpet Beetle Larva. We wanted to direct your attention to another letter from our archives, and we couldn’t locate it, so we are transferring the information from our old computer to the new computer and reposting as it seems to have gotten lost in the site migration. Thanks so much for your highly entertaining contribution.
Carpet Beetle Larva
I like ThisLeaf/Lime Bug!
February 2, 2010
This bug that’s about 1 1/2 cm in diameter has been on my garage wall for at least 30 hrs. It seems to be alive and resting. When I first saw it I thought it was a small leaf. When I enlarged the picture, it looks like a lime!
Marion Furlong
Port Charlotte, Florida
Spined Green Stink Bug Nymph
Hi Marion,
This is an immature Spined Green Stink Bug in the genus Loxa. In December 2006 we received a very detailed image of a nymph and we requested assistance from Eric Eaton who put us in touch with Julieta Brambila, who contacted an expert in Stink Bugs named Joe Eger who made the identification. There are two possible species, Loxa flavicolis and Loxa viridis which are difficult to distinguish from one another as nymphs. You may read about that identification in our archives and you may see images of the adults on BugGuide. The thoracic spines that appear on the adult are not evident on the nymphs. What most amazes us is that this same individual has been living on your garage for thirty years and it has never matured. We found the Global Biodiversity Information Facility website that indicates the range of Loxa flavicolis as being Florida, Texas, Mexico and Central America, but we are not having any luck identifying the host plants. The Sonoran Desert Bugs website provides some information.
Spined Green Stink Bug Nymph
Correction
Hi Danial,
Thanks for your time and help identifying the bug as a Spined green stink bug, I was pleased to hear from you so fast and to be a part of your bug identification site.
When I read what you printed about the bug being on my garage for 30 years I thought I’d made a mistake. You misread it, it had been there for 30 hours! I thought you may like to know so you can change it.
If it’s not to late, it’s still there and has moved into a different position. I took a couple more pictures from a different angle and with my fingers next to it to get an idea of the size.
Thanks again for your help.
Marion Furlong
Oops. Thanks for the correction Marion. Sometimes we read things too quickly.
