Bug Identification...

[Prism Chameleons]

Anyone know what type of insect this is?

 

[Chris Anderson]

Its a Hemiptera of some type. Possibly in the Reduviidae family but its hard to tell from the pic.

Chris

 

[lowendfrequency]

I'm not up to date on my insect latin, but we have those bugs around here. They are known as an assasin bug, the common assasin bug to be exact. The one in your picture is in one of the nymph stages. They metemorphisize several times in their life and the adults have wings. Don't feed them to your chams or pick them up for that matter. I was bit by one once and my finger swelled up double it's size for days. It was painful and itched like mad.

Looks like Chris is right, Reduviidae family.

 

[Prism Chameleons]

Thank you very much all... I'm from the west coast of California and now live on the east coast and I have never seen an insect such as this. I have them in my yard it seems and found one climbing on the outside one of my chameleon cages. All my panthers are out for the summer now getting that good old fresh air and sunny rays .

I'll have to be careful of those insects. Do you know if they attack animals at all? I have some tortoises I'm making a special outside habitat for. I'll do some research as well, but I wonder what they eat.

 

[lowendfrequency]

Thank you very much all... I'm from the west coast of California and now live on the east coast and I have never seen an insect such as this. I have them in my yard it seems and found one climbing on the outside one of my chameleon cages. All my panthers are out for the summer now getting that good old fresh air and sunny rays .

I'll have to be careful of those insects. Do you know if they attack animals at all? I have some tortoises I'm making a special outside habitat for. I'll do some research as well, but I wonder what they eat.

I'm not sure if they'd attack an animal unless they felt threatened. They are predators however. They eat mostly bees and have a long needle like appendage that they use to suck the juices out of victims. Fun stuff huh?

 

[Prism Chameleons]

Yeah... I did some reading on them. They actually insert toxins/poisons in their victims in liquidified form and then suck them back out. And they are meat eaters, however, as you said, from what I have read so far they stick to other insects and in one place it was actually said they were beneficial to a garden because they eat the garden eating bugs.

Also, they have one big bad painful bite to humans as well.

Ouch .

 

[Will Hayward]

Kinda off topic, but this link of mine is too good NOT to share... I find insects so fascinating because they live on a whole different level of existence.

View this: http://pishmo.com/macro/

 

[Chamomile T]

Awesome Will! I am a bit of a fanatic with macro photography, I love it. The closer the better. I bet you have some photos like that of your own?? Thanks for sharing.

 

[Will Hayward]

I bet you have some photos like that of your own?? Thanks for sharing.

Buy me a nice macro lens and some extensions and I will!

 

[Chamomile T]

I was positive you already had one

 

[Will Hayward]

Unfortunatly, nope.

 

[Prism Chameleons]

Absolutely incredible photos... some awesome, some beautiful, and some just darnright scary . Nice link Will.