John53
I go leaps and bounds
This one is weird. My daughter found it in her car today. She says about 1cm long. It's a phone pic so not great. Maybe a feather legged assassin bug? Feather-legged Assassin Bug
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A Bug for Dan
- Thread starter John53
- Start date
This one is weird. My daughter found it in her car today. She says about 1cm long. It's a phone pic so not great. Maybe a feather legged assassin bug? Feather-legged Assassin Bug
It's hemipteran (true bug) like the assassin bugs. I'll take your word on the ID. Other than color it sure looks like the pictures at your link.
That's what I find so cool is that your fauna is going to be almost alien to what I'm used to here.
John53
I go leaps and bounds
I tried using google image to ID her bug and all it came up with was gold jewellery lol
John53
I go leaps and bounds
This is the reply I got from an Aussie Entomologist...
"Feather Legged Assassin Bug. Awesome find. They eat ants and attract them by rubbing an oily pheremone on themselves that is basically "Ant Crack" and when ant comes to investigate BAM, they get a stabby rostrum to the head and become a Assassin Bug slurpee.
Ptilocnemus sp"
Doh! I already liked it.
I don't think I'm going out on a limb to declare their expertise in Australian fauna greater than my own by a significant factor. If they say that is what it is, I think we are probably safe to agree.
I think it is an extraordinary find for it's morphology and a very interesting biology. And it looks like gold jewelry too. In a land down under, your bugs are made of gold.
John53
I go leaps and bounds
Is slurpee and stabby technical entomology terms?
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John53
I go leaps and bounds
Here's another Cicada I took a few years ago. We called them Orange Drummers when I was a kid but on looking them up I'm out of their range, they're central and western Aus. They have a similar McDonald's logo on their back so I'm guessing they're related. I suspect the pink one I posted before is a freshly emerged one of these.
Orange Drummer — Cicada
Orange Drummer — Cicada
A wee bit of artistic license, but I know what you meant.
As a general rule, I never pick up hitch hikers named Stabby, but as far as a recognizable substitute for a technical term it works.
John53
I go leaps and bounds
I've been contacted by a gentleman who is doing part of his PhD on Assassin Bug genetics who is looking for specimens. I'm not aware I've ever seen one but I shall keep my open for him.
Cool! That's another in to the world of insect study. Once one of us finds you, you'll never get rid of the infestation.
According to my brain (Google), there are over 300 species in the family Reduviidae in Australia. There is a subfamily Phymatinae called ambush bugs that some effort was made to have elevated to a family of their own since I studied systematics. Not sure....no it looks like my "brain" says they are still recognized as a valid subfamily. Anyway, these are "sit and wait" predators camouflaged to blend into flowers and foliage so they can capture insect pray that wanders into range much like the crab spider that you pictured a few pages back.
I think you are right about the emergence status of the first one. They darken as they harden after emergence. These are all in the family Cicadidae. Though, not knowing your fauna, it could be some showy species I've never seen before.
This will be of interest to you I think. According to my reading, there is a sister family Tettigarctidae, the hairy cicadas, with only two species. One in southern Australia and one in Tasmania.
John53
I go leaps and bounds
I learnt something new this morning. I was searching google for a butterfly I'd photographed and discovered the male and female Orchard Swallowtail are sexually dimorphic. I didn't realise that happened in the insect world.
Yeah! It isn't uncommon. Horns in scarab beetles are found on males for instance.
John53
I go leaps and bounds
I should have known that, I've seen a lot of rhinoceros beetles.
A lot of beetle species exhibit sexual dimorphism, but many also do not. Stag beetles are another example.
Sexual dimorphism is a pretty common phenomenon in animals, with size differences being fairly common. There is a usually a reproductive advantage to these traits that are apparently worth the effort despite the disadvantage that advertising can have.
Among horned beetles there is variation in the expression of the horn size with some males having a more prominent horn than others. A reasonable body of research has been conducted on these differences in the last 20 years or so. Doug Emlen and Armon Moczek are two of the more notable researchers in the area.
And if you get pictures, I'm definitely interested in those or anything scarab/stag beetle.
Who am I kidding, I'm interested in any insects or spiders or...you happen to catch in a photo. I mean, it's all new to me.
John53
I go leaps and bounds
There were hundreds of dead rhino beetles in the aldi car park a couple of weeks ago but I didn't have the camera and I'd left my phone at home. They appeared to be all females which I thought was slightly odd.
Probably didn't have a coin for the cart.
That is odd. It is too bad you didn't have your camera with you, but I often used to see something interesting and not have a camera handy.
John53
I go leaps and bounds
I found a couple of bugs yesterday, a stick insect about 200mm long and what I'm guessing is a type of Longhorn.
Correct on both accounts. I happen to be good friends with a cerambycid expert. If I can, I'll show him the photo and see which longhorn it might be. Do you mind if I capture it electronically for transmission?