Subject: WTB IS IT???!!!
Geographic location of the bug: Pearsall, Texas
Date: 05/29/2019
Time: 07:53 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Greetings Bugman,
WTB IS THAT ??!!!
Was my similar response by 1 letter.
A friend of mine from where I now reside in California is now in Texas.
He took this photo 5/24/2019 in Pearsall, Texas.
I grew up in Texas and in true tomboy form was an avid “bug collector”.
Many years and in all seasons were spent combing through the grass, foilage, and dirt.
Untold hours were spent in trees, creekside, streamside, in barns, sheds, fields, etc..etc…
I also bug watched in New Mexico, Louisiana, Tennesee, Florida, and finally the California deserts.
I have gotten up close and personal with huge grasshoppers, gargantuan centipedes, massive black scorpions, and black widow spiders, tarantulas (and had a pet one later), made buddies with a wolf spider have been buds with several manti, a walking stick, a few crickets too and even a very special sun spider that bypassed my rare fear of an insect.
I like insects as I do animals, birds, reptiles.
I have never seen a bug like this one in Texas or anywhere else.
Can you educate me in this one?
He is a handsome fellow (or felicia) in warrior’s armor to boot even if pre steel.
I applaud your stand on extermination.
I often say; “even cockroaches are simply trying to clean up OUR mess so who is actually disgusting?
Many thanks to you.
How you want your letter signed: Amie Friederich
Dear Amie,
Thank you for your highly entertaining submission. This is an immature Big Legged Bug in the genus Acanthocephala, and you can compare your image to this BugGuide image. Adult Big Legged Bugs grow quite large. This genus is not reported from California.