Any Idea What This Is?
Jul 30, 2023 16:04:57 #
I photographed this bug on potato plants this morning but have no idea what it is. Any suggestions please? Sorry about the not so great photos. I had a hard time with the bright lighting.
Dennis
Dennis
Jul 30, 2023 16:28:14 #
Jul 30, 2023 16:29:52 #
Curmudgeon wrote:
Nope but nicely shot
And here as my computer was going to this post I am thinking, an answer already? My heart was racing to find out what that little critter might be. Someone will know. I appreciate you taking a look.
Dennis
Jul 30, 2023 20:15:29 #
Hello! That is an interesting one, and here it is: https://bugguide.net/node/view/2166766/bgimage
It's not like I just know this stuff. BugGuide (BG) is like a guided missile for identifying these things, but one needs to first know the Order and the Family of the critter. Then BG does the rest. Here is the web site: https://bugguide.net/node/view/15740
1. So first off, it's one of the "true bugs", which is a weird informal name for the Order Hemiptera -- 'half wing'. These will have a piercing sucking beak tucked under the head. You can tell its a Hemipteran bc 1/2 of the wing is membraneous. That gives that diamond shape to the wings on the back. Next we need to know the Family to narrow it down. A search in BG for from Order Hemiptera will produce a lot of sample pictures, and one might get lucky and find pictures that resemble the insect in question. But actually doing a search from the Order is usually to broad to be practical.
2. Fortunately, I happen to already know this Family (I don't always, which makes it harder). But this one is in the leaf-footed bug / squash bug Family Coreidae. They all have the "look" of your insect: https://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=Coreidae&search=Search. Now a very formalized thing about this is that the Family is characterized by lots of esoteric things like # of segments on the beak, placement of the eyes, # of segments on the feet, wing veins, blah blah blah. But I hardly ever bother with that. I just go with the "look" -- A visceral way of knowing that is hard to explain. So anyway I next go to that Family in BG and generally I can just jump to the species from there, like I did this time.
3. From that Family, I started a Data search for Coreidae in your state (Idaho). That gave all records to this Family from that state, and there was your species. I do this sort of thing all the time, and it's always interesting.
It's not like I just know this stuff. BugGuide (BG) is like a guided missile for identifying these things, but one needs to first know the Order and the Family of the critter. Then BG does the rest. Here is the web site: https://bugguide.net/node/view/15740
1. So first off, it's one of the "true bugs", which is a weird informal name for the Order Hemiptera -- 'half wing'. These will have a piercing sucking beak tucked under the head. You can tell its a Hemipteran bc 1/2 of the wing is membraneous. That gives that diamond shape to the wings on the back. Next we need to know the Family to narrow it down. A search in BG for from Order Hemiptera will produce a lot of sample pictures, and one might get lucky and find pictures that resemble the insect in question. But actually doing a search from the Order is usually to broad to be practical.
2. Fortunately, I happen to already know this Family (I don't always, which makes it harder). But this one is in the leaf-footed bug / squash bug Family Coreidae. They all have the "look" of your insect: https://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=Coreidae&search=Search. Now a very formalized thing about this is that the Family is characterized by lots of esoteric things like # of segments on the beak, placement of the eyes, # of segments on the feet, wing veins, blah blah blah. But I hardly ever bother with that. I just go with the "look" -- A visceral way of knowing that is hard to explain. So anyway I next go to that Family in BG and generally I can just jump to the species from there, like I did this time.
3. From that Family, I started a Data search for Coreidae in your state (Idaho). That gave all records to this Family from that state, and there was your species. I do this sort of thing all the time, and it's always interesting.
Jul 31, 2023 05:29:50 #
Mark Sturtevant wrote:
Hello! That is an interesting one, and here it is:... (show quote)
Thanks for this guided tour. I have tried "Bugguide" before but now I know why my quest was not successful.
Jul 31, 2023 09:35:38 #
Mark Sturtevant wrote:
Hello! That is an interesting one, and here it is:... (show quote)
Thank you Mark for your knowledge and the ability to find things out. Much appreciated.
Dennis
Jul 31, 2023 09:36:08 #
Don, the 2nd son wrote:
Thanks for this guided tour. I have tried "Bugguide" before but now I know why my quest was not successful.
Dennis
Jul 31, 2023 13:59:23 #
dennis2146 wrote:
I photographed this bug on potato plants this morning but have no idea what it is. Any suggestions please? Sorry about the not so great photos. I had a hard time with the bright lighting.
Dennis
Dennis
I think it is called a Spiny Assassin Bug.
Jul 31, 2023 14:00:23 #
boomboom wrote:
I think it is called a Spiny Assassin Bug.
Thank you very much for taking a look.
Dennis
Jul 31, 2023 16:59:46 #
dennis2146 wrote:
Thank you very much for taking a look.
Dennis
Dennis
Not a problem, I learn a lot from pictures on the forum.
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