Subject: Help identifying flying insect
Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
September 29, 2015 8:37 pm
Hi,
I’m from Puerto Rico and there are some fun bugs down here in the Caribbean. We recently found this guy in the bedroom and as I reasoned with my wife not to swat it we lost it. What is it? I am including a photo.
Signature: Antonio Rodríguez, bug apologist
Dear Antonio,
This has us a bit stumped, and we haven’t much time to research this morning, though we did quickly look at the Insects of Puerto Rico site. Our initial thought is that it reminds us of a member of the order Mecoptera (see BugGuide) which includes Scorpionflies and Hangingflies, but we might be way off the mark. Perhaps one of our readers will be able to supply some information.
Update: Barklouse perhaps
Lepidopterist Julian Donahue wrote in a comment indicating perhaps Psocoptera, and we located a similar looking Peruvian Barklouse on Alamy.
Update: November 10, 2018
We just approved a comment with a link that indicates this might be a Caddisfly.
Try Psocoptera, my initial gut reaction.
Thanks so much Julian. The critter in the image does resemble this individual from BugGuide, though it is obviously a different species. We will attempt additional research.
I found something very similar in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, a year ago. I have a picture of the profile of the insect and to me it does look like a Scorpionfly. I don’t know how to post a picture here, but the picture has been posted on iNaturalist so I put the link to the observation under Website.
Since the link doesn’t show in my previous comment I’ll post it directly in the comment instead.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9349673
You may submit your image by using the Ask What’s That Bug? link on our site.
Since the link doesn’t show in my previous comment I’ll post it directly in the comment instead.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9349673
Trichoptera (Caddisfly). Here are some similar images, though not of the same species:
https://myrockytop.smugmug.com/Travel/Peru-2014/Rio-Tahuayo-Fauna-and-Flora/i-mg627TQ
Thanks for the link. The insect in our posting does resemble the Caddisfly in the link you provided.
Trichoptera (Caddisfly). Here are some similar images, though not of the same species:
https://myrockytop.smugmug.com/Travel/Peru-2014/Rio-Tahuayo-Fauna-and-Flora/i-mg627TQ