Extremely cute mystery beetle – help?
April 19, 2010
Hi, WTB!
I have no idea what this bug is or where it came from. I was sitting on our front porch when he (I’ll assume it’s a he) came strolling across the banister. I ran in the house, grabbed the digital camera, and stood there fumbling with it while Mystery Bug stood around waiting for me to get ready. He was extremely cooperative throughout the process and didn’t seem to mind the profanity spewing forth out of me as I attempted to operate the camera and deal with the fact that it refused to let me zoom in on anything and that its “macro” setting lies like a dog (but makes flowers ten feet away look AMAZING).
In any case, the pictures do this little bug no justice. It was about the size of my pinky fingernail and it had little pink eyes set very far apart on its head like a cow. It seemed to flutter its wings nervously now and then, but didn’t fly away even when poked at. In fact, I wasn’t altogether all that sure it could fly at all until it finally did, after I was done, very quickly.
In addition to the three pictures I have enclosed here, I also have some very lovely snapshots of our porch and flowerbed with a comically out-of-focus bug in the middle of them if you are interested.
Any help you could provide in identification would be greatly appreciated.
Love Always,
Ben
Spartanburg, SC
Hi Ben,
This is a Treehopper, and we are relatively certain it is Smilia fasciata based on images posted to BugGuide.
