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The Official Bug Identification Thread Starring Arch, Bugboy, and Fiendishrabbit

1356743

Posts

  • ceresceres When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning And the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator mod
    They really look like something that is going to eat my brain via my ear. Generally speaking I like bugs, but these guys make me want to put a me-shaped hole in the wall and let the people who buy the house deal with it.

    And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
  • BlazeFireBlazeFire Registered User regular
    7rkp4a8864gr.jpg
    oljmkzkrn0r7.jpg
    Any ideas on this guy? Photos aren't great, sorry about that. Location is Canadian prairies, was walking along the sand near a lake.

  • E.CoyoteE.Coyote Registered User regular
    Hellgrammite?

  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    ever see Tremors?

  • mtsmts Dr. Robot King Registered User regular
    How about this guy?
    came across this on a short hike this weekend.
    Might just be an old carapace since it felt hollow.

    WfWGmue.jpg

    camo_sig.png
  • FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    Most definitely looks like some kind of stag beetle. Hard to tell which kind since there are so bloody many stag beetle species.

    P.S: Also not a molted carapace (definitely a dead beetle) since beetles absolutely shred their old carapace when they molt (from pupae to adult).

    Fiendishrabbit on
    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
  • ArchArch Neat-o, mosquito! Registered User regular
    Actually, I'm preeetty sure that @mts 's beetle is Lucanus capreolus (stag beetles, and scarabs particularly are pretty hard....unless your dissertation was on scarabs....)

    This is bad taxonomy but what is driving my identification is two things- one, the shape of the mandibles (literally one of the actual things my dissertation was about, hit me up if you wanna know about what genes pattern mandibles), and two the color of the legs. It's really unusual for stag beetles in North America to be that color while also having those big ol' chompers, so I'm going with the "reddish brown stag beetle", or Lucanus capreolus.

    Also, this one was probably a male, again based on the size and shape of the mandibles (as well as the size and shape of the head), and also also this one is super dead, sadly. Beetles don't molt once they become adults, so there will never be a "shed beetle exoskeleton" like you'd see with something like a cicada or dragonfly.

    More importantly, these guys would have become a pupae either underground or buried in a rotting log, so you'd never find the pupal case unless you really looked (and with scarab beetles, it's actually a much softer pupae than you'd be used to, and it rots really quickly).

    I'm also pretty sure @BlazeFire 's pictures are a hellgrammite but I'm not 100%.

  • FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    "probably a male". Don't you mean "certainly a male"?
    AFAIK mandibles of this size are used to wrestle other males, so only males have them (which also makes it way harder for amateurs to identify a female stag beetle since it's one less thing that discerns them from other beetle species).

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
  • ArchArch Neat-o, mosquito! Registered User regular
    "probably a male". Don't you mean "certainly a male"?
    AFAIK mandibles of this size are used to wrestle other males, so only males have them (which also makes it way harder for amateurs to identify a female stag beetle since it's one less thing that discerns them from other beetle species).

    Depends. If this is the species I'm thinking of, its definitely a male. However, sometimes these mandibles can be larger or smaller, such that small males look really similar to females, mandible size.

    Also, scientists love to hedge their bets....

    >.>

  • I ZimbraI Zimbra Worst song, played on ugliest guitar Registered User regular
    So the balcony at our new place is wasp city, and in addition to the usual yellow and black fellows there are some that are iridescent blue in the sunlight. Body-wise they're shaped the same as the others with a very narrow thorax and bulbous stinger. Any ideas?

  • ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    I Zimbra wrote: »
    So the balcony at our new place is wasp city, and in addition to the usual yellow and black fellows there are some that are iridescent blue in the sunlight. Body-wise they're shaped the same as the others with a very narrow thorax and bulbous stinger. Any ideas?

    Blue mud daubers?

    https://g.co/kgs/YREN3X
    Hello there!
    tr26t5lm8q7g.jpg

    I heard there were some delicious spiders around here, but...¯\_(ÓÒ)_/¯

    (Edit: Flipped image, because why not)

    ArbitraryDescriptor on
  • I ZimbraI Zimbra Worst song, played on ugliest guitar Registered User regular
    Yeah, that sure looks like it. They're very cool looking both in pictures and in person

    I guess I could have googled "blue wasp" before I posted this.

  • So It GoesSo It Goes We keep moving...Registered User regular
    And deprive the rest of us of learning that there are blue wasps?

    Pff

  • H3KnucklesH3Knuckles But we decide which is right and which is an illusion.Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    Brought back a long-forgotten childhood memory of paging through a big old-school encyclopedia at my grandmothers and being mesmerized by a page of illustrated bugs that had a blue wasp on it. I was big into things like bestiaries and memorizing the sections in videogame instruction manuals full of the drawings & names of enemies, etc, when I was a kid. Looking back it's kind of strange I didn't catch on to zoology or paleontology as an area of interest.

    H3Knuckles on
    If you're curious about my icon; it's an update of the early Lego Castle theme's "Black Falcons" faction.
    camo_sig2-400.png
  • DisruptedCapitalistDisruptedCapitalist I swear! Registered User regular
    Saw some very pretty Japanese Beetles yesterday, but they scurried off before I could get any pics.

    "Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
  • ceresceres When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning And the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator mod
    I grew up with a loathing for Japanese beetles because when I was little my mom had a lot of the kind of roses they like, and they were so attracted to them I swear every Japanese beetle in the tri-state area was mooching off that garden. My mom had sprays and traps and did everything she could think of that didn't involve enough poison to kill a herd of elephants, and just gave up after about two years and pulled the plants. To this day I can't see a posted image of a Japanese beetle without seeing the piles of them writhing and eating in that garden.

    And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
  • LogicReasonLogicReason Registered User regular
    So.. um. What might this thing be? It landed on my car windshield at Sonic (In Phoenix AZ, where we've just had some wet weather if that helps). It was, I'd guess.. 3-4 inches long if not bigger. Kind of gave me a fright. Last I saw it disappeared off the side of my car in the lot.

    ee7w3llnbtus.jpg
    mkwaqwl3rk1d.jpg

  • ceresceres When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning And the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator mod
    edited July 2018
    I'm going to go with "photoshop" or "toy".

    edit: or not omg

    ceres on
    And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
  • H3KnucklesH3Knuckles But we decide which is right and which is an illusion.Registered User regular
    ceres wrote: »
    I'm going to go with "photoshop" or "toy".

    edit: or not omg

    I was thinking "how do I tell this guy his burger shop has a terrible roach problem", so I'm glad to see I was wrong.

    If you're curious about my icon; it's an update of the early Lego Castle theme's "Black Falcons" faction.
    camo_sig2-400.png
  • ArchArch Neat-o, mosquito! Registered User regular
    Hey @LogicReason , I'm also in Arizona (Tucson, for....three more days???), and what you're looking at is a Palo Verde beetle, Derobrachus geminatus. These guys feed on Palo Verde around here, and the monsoons have definitely brought them out to play.

    They can give a decently nasty bite, but it's not venomous- just very big mandibles that hurt quite a bit (from...personal experience).

  • FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    It's funny how Palo Verde beetles look like a Pine Sawyer on steroids. So much steroids.

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
  • Blameless ClericBlameless Cleric An angel made of sapphires each more flawlessly cut than the last Registered User regular
    Ok ok so what are these cool moths me and my friend saw today ??? They were out during the day and on these brown lumps ?

    Here is one on a tree
    kCfeITql.jpg

    And another one on a telephone pole
    Fp8xWCKl.jpg
    KHtZSyAl.jpg

    Orphane wrote: »

    one flower ring to rule them all and in the sunlightness bind them

    I'd love it if you took a look at my art and my PATREON!
  • FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    It's a Gypsy moth and it looks like she's laying eggs. Do not touch the nest with your bare hands.

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
  • DisruptedCapitalistDisruptedCapitalist I swear! Registered User regular
    I usually touch the nest with my shoe heel. Nasty invasive species.

    "Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
  • Bendery It Like BeckhamBendery It Like Beckham Hopeless Registered User regular
    It's a Gypsy moth and it looks like she's laying eggs. Do not touch the nest with your bare hands.

    Other than the obvious "It's bad for the bugs" is there something particular about these Moth's nests that should be avoided with bare skin?

  • DisruptedCapitalistDisruptedCapitalist I swear! Registered User regular
    Frankly, with deforestation like this:

    gypsy_moth_damage.jpg

    I show those blighters no mercy.

    "Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
  • H3KnucklesH3Knuckles But we decide which is right and which is an illusion.Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    wikipedia wrote:
    Impact
    The gypsy moth habitat overlaps with the northern tiger swallowtail, Papilio canadensis. Experiments indicate that known gypsy moth pathogens and gypsy moth bodily fluid negatively affect the survival of swallowtail larvae. Gypsy moth bodily fluid is lethal and swallowtail caterpillars were prone to higher rates of parasitism when placed in the field near gypsy moth infestations.[31]

    Lymantria dispar dispar causes widespread defoliation and costs the economy millions of dollars in damages. Total defoliation in America, from 1970 to 2010, was 80.4 million acres (325,000 km2).[32] The worst year was 1981 with 12.9 million acres (52,000 km2) defoliated.[25][33] In 2010, 1,207,478 acres (488,649 ha) were defoliated.[21]

    Forest defoliation by the gypsy moths each year affects the populations and reproductive success of forest-dwelling birds. Nests placed in defoliated sites suffered a higher predation rate than those in non-defoliated sites. Gypsy moths have a direct impact on avian behavior in the American forests.[34]

    Gypsy moth rash
    The gypsy moth caterpillar has been reported to produce a poison ivy like rash when some people come into contact with the hairs of the larvae (caterpillar) stage. The contact can be direct or even if the small hairs are carried by the wind and onto the skin or clothing of a person. Gypsy moth rashes were documented in the early 1980s, during a major infestation in the Northeastern United States.[35] In coastal Maine and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, caterpillar-triggered rash is much more likely due to exposure to Browntail moth (Euproctis chrysorrhoea).[36]

    Holy shit.

    H3Knuckles on
    If you're curious about my icon; it's an update of the early Lego Castle theme's "Black Falcons" faction.
    camo_sig2-400.png
  • H3KnucklesH3Knuckles But we decide which is right and which is an illusion.Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    @Blameless Cleric and @Bendery It Like Beckham that last paragraph I quoted above seems like the reason why they were cautioning against touching the eggs with bare skin.

    Edit: Man, even the gypsy moth's major predator is a problem. The white-footed mouse is a native North American species that unfortunately also acts as a reservoir for Lyme disease and hantavirus.
    wcmzqflzhtvp.jpg
    Cute little thing, though.

    H3Knuckles on
    If you're curious about my icon; it's an update of the early Lego Castle theme's "Black Falcons" faction.
    camo_sig2-400.png
  • ceresceres When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning And the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator mod
    So gypsy moths are a manifestation of evil. Got it.

    And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
  • FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    It's a Gypsy moth and it looks like she's laying eggs. Do not touch the nest with your bare hands.

    Other than the obvious "It's bad for the bugs" is there something particular about these Moth's nests that should be avoided with bare skin?

    The nest itself can cause skin irritation. Thus, don't touch it with your bare skin.
    Ideally you should take a bucket, fill it with water and a bit of detergent. Then scrape the nest into the bucket using some kind of implement and leave the nest drenched in the water/detergent mix for 24 hours.
    Having detergents in the water will fuck with the eggs ability to resist moisture, and the eggs will die.
    After that you can flush it or throw it in the trash.

    The eggs are remarkably resilient, so just stomping on it will not do much.

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
  • Blameless ClericBlameless Cleric An angel made of sapphires each more flawlessly cut than the last Registered User regular
    Oh dang thanks

    Orphane wrote: »

    one flower ring to rule them all and in the sunlightness bind them

    I'd love it if you took a look at my art and my PATREON!
  • DisruptedCapitalistDisruptedCapitalist I swear! Registered User regular
    It's a Gypsy moth and it looks like she's laying eggs. Do not touch the nest with your bare hands.

    Other than the obvious "It's bad for the bugs" is there something particular about these Moth's nests that should be avoided with bare skin?

    The nest itself can cause skin irritation. Thus, don't touch it with your bare skin.
    Ideally you should take a bucket, fill it with water and a bit of detergent. Then scrape the nest into the bucket using some kind of implement and leave the nest drenched in the water/detergent mix for 24 hours.
    Having detergents in the water will fuck with the eggs ability to resist moisture, and the eggs will die.
    After that you can flush it or throw it in the trash.

    The eggs are remarkably resilient, so just stomping on it will not do much.

    Aw nuts, I didn't know that. This thread teaches me something new everyday.

    "Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
  • ceresceres When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning And the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator mod
    Oh dang thanks

    tell your friend to kill it with fire

    And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
  • MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    Okay, finally managed a picture of one of these things! It's very small, grain of rice, dark colored, and it can fly. Apparently it's not a carpet beetle so I have no idea what it is, though I do know it's not a bed bug. Even this phone camera might not be enough to focus on it.

    HTzM1Ug.jpg?1

  • VishNubVishNub Registered User regular
  • FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    I have to admire the Gypsy moths survival strategy though.

    While other species go:
    1. "I spread my wiiiings" and fly around in the adult stage
    2. Larvae only spread in areas where an adult laid eggs and those eggs survived to adulthood
    3. Larvae are relatively low mobility and need to worry about overfeeding.
    4. They become adults and repeat the stage

    Gypsy moths on the other hand go:
    1. Females go "Well. What if I just concentrate all my energy on creating the perfect nest and the most survivable eggs?". Then the males can focus on flying around and finding females while the females just sit still.
    2. Then the larvae spin a sort of parachute, fly on the wind and spread out. Thus successful nests can spread over a much larger area and the larvae will not be as densly concentrated.
    3. Larvae can be incredibly voracious since they don't have to compete as much with their siblings, thus they can both put a lot of energy into being really annoying to eat (developing spines and such) AND creating the largest females that can create the largest pool of high quality eggs.
    4. They become adults and repeat.

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
  • MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    VishNub wrote: »

    Nothing's jumping out at me so I'll probably just let my brother identify it since he's studying entomology, which is how I acquired the vial.

  • BugBoyBugBoy boy.EXE has stopped functioning. only bugs remainRegistered User regular
    I was wondering why you had that sort of vial on hand!

  • WiseManTobesWiseManTobes Registered User regular
    So.. um. What might this thing be? It landed on my car windshield at Sonic (In Phoenix AZ, where we've just had some wet weather if that helps). It was, I'd guess.. 3-4 inches long if not bigger. Kind of gave me a fright. Last I saw it disappeared off the side of my car in the lot.

    ee7w3llnbtus.jpg

    Pretty sure if this landed on my windshield, my post in Help/advice wouldn't be in the bug thread, it would be a new thread titled " how to clean a mountain of poop off of a driver's seat?"

    Steam! Battlenet:Wisemantobes#1508
  • mtsmts Dr. Robot King Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    whats this guy.
    W7orBnK.jpg

    probably like 3-4 inches long

    wait. female cicada?

    mts on
    camo_sig.png
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