Subject: Unknown bug in Africa, Namibia
Geographic location of the bug: Impalila Island, Namibia Coordinates: -17.7747615 25.1709266
Date: 09/06/2018
Time: 07:44 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Can you identify this insect. I have searched for many hours and could not find a match on the web. See the photo.
It was photographed at this location: https://www.google.com/maps/
How you want your letter signed: Robert Zinn
Dear Robert,
These are mating Red Bugs in the family Pyrrhocoridae and we identified them as Welwitschia Bugs, Probergrothius angolensis, thanks to FlickR Hiveminer and Stanford EDU. The species is also pictured on iNaturalist.
Daniel,
It appears that this bug should really identified as Probergrothius sexpunctatus on your website. It is commonly misidentified as Probergrothius angolensis.
I base this on the content of the Naturalist site link you provided and the Similar Species tab on that page. You may want to correct your website entry.
Thank you for your time in identifying the bug.
-Robert Zinn
Thanks for catching that Robert. We will also link to the iNaturalist page. We try our best to be as accurate as possible, and with DNA analysis becoming the latest tool for scientists to use in separating species, many changes are occurring in taxonomic classification. We have no entomological background, so many postings on our site likely contain identification errors. At least we had the genus correct and we were able to steer you in the direction of the identification you requested.