Subject: Dinosaur Cricket or what?
Location: Fayeteville, PA
November 5, 2013 10:19 am
Sir,
My picture’s don’t clearly show the black sparkly tar like oval (I call her ”eye”) on the back of her wings. We watched her lay eggs, maybe? 2nd picture (blurry – sorry – I was freaking out about being that close to her), shows some of the shiny ”eggs” (I’m assuming they are eggs) she put on the post. Do you know what this is? If you need more pictures, and can promise me this thing just looks mean (but very cool!), but really isn’t, I can take more. It moved to a log on the porch, and hasn’t moved for days. My guess, she is still there. I avoid bugs, but this thing is just too interesting to not try to find out what it is. First saw her on Halloween. We live at the top of a mountain, along Michaux State Forest, and now she does too.
She looks like a stink bug/cricket combo that I’ve nick named dinosaur cricket.
Thank you for any information you can provide!
Signature: Dana
Dear Dana,
We love that you have named this native, predatory Wheel Bug the Dinosaur Cricket. Wheel Bugs are Assassin Bugs and they are in the same insect order as Stink Bugs. Wheel Bug Eggs are laid in a regular, geometric mass that resembles barrels.
Thank you for your response! That is exactly what she is!! With this new information, I can get more pictures of her and her glistening black “eye” on her wings. She didn’t lay a whole lot of eggs, but I hope to see more wheel bugs in the future, so I will be watching her eggs in the spring.
I think this is the first time I’ve ever thought a bug was cool, and happy it was on my porch.
It is the closest thing to a “dinosaur” that I ever want to see. 🙂
Thank you again!
Respectfully,
Dana