Subject: Big?
Geographic location of the bug: New Jersey, USA
Date: 08/17/2019
Time: 03:15 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Hello daughter rescued this guy from our pool. He scurried away, was very fast. Looked to have front legs but back end more worm like
How you want your letter signed: Cher Mom
Dear Cher Mom,
Immature insects often present greater identification challenges than adult insects present. We suspected this to be a Ground Beetle larva and we found supporting visual validation on Project Noah which has a similar looking image identified as a Pterostichini sp. and on BugGuide where a similar image is identified as a Pasimachus species. Ground Beetles are predators as larvae and adults and Caterpillars are often a preferred prey.
I think this larva is more likely Scarites than Pasimachus.
Thanks for this input.
Oh! I’ve seen these before. As far as I know, I’m pretty sure the adult ones in my yard are Big Headed Ground Beetles, and I’ve seen the larvae that look almost exactly like that! Other than the colors, it looks really similar.
(oh yeah, sorry this is really late I just saw this though