Friend or Foe #2

A continuation of "Friend or Foe" where I attempt to answer your questions about critters in your garden and provide examples of good or harmless critters that might be mistaken as harmful.

Feel free to post your pictures and questions concerning beneficial insects in your gardens.


I think that like the previous thread, I'll start us off with a beneficial bug from the order of "true bugs" - the hemiptera.

Unlike the predatory stink bugs, this bug doesn't necessarily look like one that would harm your plants, it just looks intimidating. This is a wheel bug (family Reduviidae), and it can grow up to an inch in size. There are some large plant-sucking bugs called leaf-footed bugs in the family Coreidae that look a bit similar in shape and size, but they will not have the tell-tale protrusion on their back that resembles half a "wheel". If you see that, then you know that you have a wheel bug. There's no need to look for the large beak, but like most predatory Hemiptera, the wheel bug does have one. This bug can also give you a nasty bite if it is mishandled, so wear gloves if you are concerned and approach it gently. Wheel bugs eat caterpillars and other larger sized insects.

Here's a link to the original thread... http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/503459/

And here is what a wheel bug looks like...

This message was edited May 19, 2005 2:15 AM

Hi Night-

Their Viburnum had the same as mine - leaf curl w/aphids so the diagnosis was easy:) I don't think I will venture into the guessing realm since I don't have a clue about most insects!

I have been up close and personal with a wheel bug. They look prehistoric!

-Kim

Night, I have what looks like a light green seed pod on all my azalea's, but all the pods are empty. Do you have any idea that this could be?

Thanks,

JR

jrusse - could you take a picture? There are a few things that might look like seed pod: a gall or an emptied egg case for example

Without a ug to look at though, I can't promise I'll know what it is, but I'll give it a try.

That wheel bug looks similar to the assasin bugs I had last year, they must be related? Mine were light grey, with some irridescents on the body, and looked like leaf-footed at first. They sat in herds on the branches of my sunflowers, waiting for things to get on the corn I suppose. Pretty awesome!

Tamara - They are related. Assassin bugs are also in the family Reduviidae, so in a way, a wheel bug is a special type of assassin bug. The characteristic that probably gives them a similar look is the enlarged front legs.

By the way, did the links to the lady beetle pupae on the last thread work for you? That website is a pretty good one for finding pictures of insects.

In addition to the green asassin bug on the last thread, here's another assassin bug. This one is doing something not so helpful now - eating a bee - but of course that is sometimes a hazard with predatory bugs. They don't always get just the bad guys. Note the enlarged front legs that make it look like an arm wrestler. These are what it uses to grab its prey.

In contrast, here is one of the plant-feeding leaf footed bugs I mentioned in the first post. This one is not one of the larger varieties, but it does have the enlarged back leg that is often typical of the leaf-footed bug family (Coreidae).

Please note that I labeled this incorrectly. The label should say "tibia" instead of femur. Some leaf bugs have both an enlarged femur and an enlarged tibia that looks like a leaf. Though this one has an enlarged femur also, only the tibia is shaped like a leaf. The tibia is the section of leg just before the "feet" or tarsi. I hope someday to get a shot of one of the leaf footed bugs that has both parts of the legs enlarged, because they are very intersting in both shape and coloration.

This message was edited May 14, 2005 3:06 AM

I'm learning so much from this thread!

I have to confess, my "critterology" background includes more marine inverts than terrestrial ones, so I'm glad we have N_B!

That's a good tip about looking at the size of the front legs to distinguish between predatory and plant eating assassin bugs.

Yes, NB, that link was great, and confirmed those are lady bug pupae! I typed that up last night, then got sidetracked clicking on another picture before I hit send (ooops, hate it when I do that).

I would be interested to see a yound leaf footed. We have lots of young bugs right now, and often what determines their being squished is their behavior, they all look so alike to me...

That sight also had great info on plant diseases, esp for tomatoes!

Tamara

I just noticed that the thread has moved to this new one, so I'm reposting here after I posted on the old one earlier this morning.

I really like the predator pictures you've been posting. I've seen a couple of them in my garden and was wondering whether or not to encourage them.

Here's a picture of a guy I've seen twice--each time on a different species of Santolina. He's a little over a quarter of an inch long. Don't you like the way I was able to get a photo of him lounging on his side!!! Ok, so it was posed. And he was dead. And my nephew took the picture.

I've seen another critter who is not so willing a model. He is red all over and about half an inch long, with a broad, flat abdomen which is frequently tipped up. Any ideas pop into your mind, or do I need to wait until he is more "willing" and take a photo?

Thanks for all your help.

Hi Night_Bloom;

I was sitting outside today, watching some very pretty white butterflies flitting around the garden, and wondered if they were the adults of the black caterpillars I've been wondering about. Then I realized that those would be moths, and then I realized that I don't even know what the difference between a moth and a butterfly really is! Would a moth be flitting around the flowers of the garden too?

sebek - I answered your question on the old thread before realizing you also posted your question here, so I, too, am copying my response over here. Here it is...

The insect in your photo above is a four-lined plant bug (family Miridae, Poeciliocapsus lineatus). This is not a good bug. It can cause leaf damage. If the numbers start accumulating, a low-impact control method such as a systemic imidicloprid or a short lasting natural pyrethrin should work.

The problem with your red bug is that the behaviour sounds like that of a wheel bug nymph - see this picture here... http://www.ipmimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1430015 or a closely related assassin bug. But nymphs of the plant bug are also red in color. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture to link to for the plant bug nymph. I'd probably need a picture to tell which you have. The shape of a Reduviidae (wheel type bug) would be quite a bit different than that of the Miridae (plant bug), but I couldn't say which you have from just the description you have here. Though the size is pretty large for a plant bug, so I'd more go for the wheel bug - see the adult picture I posted in the first post. Wheel bugs are great predator bugs. They especially like to eat caterpillars.

margu - in general, no, most moths won't be flitting around in the daytime. At least not the moths that we have here. In some other countries there are "day flying moths", but I don't think we have any here. The closest we have are the hummingbird moths - there are some nice pictures of these in the butterfly and hummingbird thread - and they mostly fly at dusk and they don't really flutter, but fly pretty fast.

Some of the distinctions between butterflies and moths aren't definite, but here are some generalities.

At rest, butterflies usually put their wings behind their back, folded together. Moths don't do this. (Similar to damselfies which rest with their wongs folded and dragonflies which rest with their wings outstretched.)

Moths generally have a fat, often fuzzy or hairy body. Butterflies are usually slimmer and not hairy.

Male moths often have bushy antennae, butterflies not.

Butterflies are usually active in the daytime whereas moths mostly come out at night.

Of course then there are the skippers (family Hesperiidae) which sort of fall in between the moths and butterflies. They are active in the day and have a "fatter" body. They can either rest with their wings open, or in a "half-open" position. Generally their distinguishing character is an antennae with a little "scoop" at the end and generally large eyes, though if you see a critter with their wings in the typical half-open position, you can be pretty sure that you have a skipper.

Here are some pictures of skippers. The first one shows the typical "half-open" wing position. Note the big eyes, head, and body. Also note the scooped end of the antennae.


This message was edited May 16, 2005 4:45 AM

Here's another skipper. This one rests with its wings open, but it still has the other skipper characteristics. This species has especially prominent "scoops" on the ends on its antennae.

This last skipper is a common garden visitor in the south - the long-tailed skipper (Urbanus proteus). I think they are rather pretty. A related species, Urbanus dorantes, has similar tails, but no blue coloration. It is common in Texas.

These are common in gardens because the caterpillar is the bean leaf roller - which I happen to think are cute critters myself. They will eat bean leaves, but generally don't eat too much, and because I like the skippers visiting my garden, I let them be. They make themselves a home by rolling back a section of bean leaf to hide behind. I have pictures which I may post in the future, but for now, here is the adult...

last picture - and this is also for margu - I have a feeling that your "pretty white butterfly" might be a cabbage butterfly. Keep an eye out, because the caterpillars of these guys will eat your cabbage and related garden veggies if you don't have predatory bugs and wasps or yellow jackets to eat them for you. They can also be taken out by diseases which will make the caterpillars look black and crumpled.

Here's a picture of the cabbage butterfly (family Pieridae - the sulfur butterflies, Pieris rapae).

Hey Night_Bloom, you should be called Night_Owl.... ;-). One things leads to another, in looking up the hummingbird moths, I realized that the giant moths I was talking about earlier could very well be the White-lined Sphinx. My cats like to catch them at sunset and bring them inside to "play". I'm constantly having to set them free. I'll take a closer look next time. And I remember the first little skipper moth very well from my childhood in Los Angeles, we had a lantana bush in front of the house, and it was always covered with them. We liked to catch them and "pet" them, and I remember that they had that golden shiny powdery coating that you can see on the last picture of the long-tailed skipper, which is a beautiful moth, by the way, I've never seen anything like it.

It could very well be a cabbage butterfly, looks like it. I've been trying to catch one at rest to see if it has any markings. Fortunately, I'm exclusively a flower and decorative plant gardener...no veggies. Too much work for me! It's antique roses, lavenders, bush daisies, bird of paradise, bouganvilla, plumeria etc. around here. Anything that doesn't require tons of water. You'd be amazed how well the antique roses do here in the blazing heat with little care. Here's a pic of one of the American Pillar roses that I inherited when I moved in here. It was just a stump that my landlord kept cutting to the ground, and it probably hadn't been watered for years. After I figured out what it was, I just let it go, all this growth was just THIS season! Nice thing is also they don't seem to have many pests, except for rust. But they are also kind of self-healing.

I think cabbage butterflies are also the ones that transmit cucumber mosaic virus? Easy fix for this.... just cover your cukes (with that white poly row cover). By the time they bloom & need to be uncovered for fertilization, the window for transmission should be pretty well past.

Wow, Margu, that's all this season's growth on that rose?!!! Gorgeous!

Still enjoying this thread, keep it up, it's great!

Tamara

Hi Night_Bloom! I have a new question for you, this one about bees. I have all the usual guys; honey bees, wasps, yellow jackets, but also those really big fat black "bumblebees", at least that's what I've always called them. What is the story on them? What do they eat? Are they predators? Do they sting? Are they good for the garden? What do they do in life? (sounds like I'm worried one of them wants to marry my daughter! ;-> ) Just curious. You've now gotten me examining every moth and butterfly that comes my way!

Giving them the third degree, eh margu? Today I caught a soldier bug, and was trying to see his beak so I could determine if he was "friend or foe". Well, he just kept moving around. I finally told him to hold still or identify himself! He paid no attention, so I spared him and let him jump back to the ground. He was black and red with white markings...

Okay - margu's question first. Your big black "bumblebee" is most likely a carpenter bee - see picture below. This is a pretty good pollinator, but she might also tunnel holes in your unfinished wood where she can find it. The females might sting if you try to hold them in your bare hand, but otherwise they are pretty much all "bark" and no sting. The males especially will buzz at you, trying to act all tough while they cruise for females.

This is a picture of a poor, tired carpenter bee, but you can see the relative characteristics. The thorax (middle) starts out fuzzy and yellow, but often gets worn away as it is in this picture as the bee goes in and out of the tunnels it excavates in wood. The abdomen (the back part beneath the wings) is all black. This is unlike the bumble bee which has fuzzy yellow at the top part of the abdomen.

Night_Bloom, when it comes to bees/bumblebees, how does the red splotch or marking on their back make them different? Or does it?

I'm enjoying your postings here immensely. :)

Donna, who is the designated bee/wasp catcher when those hunnies come indoors to try to pollinate my flowered curtains or houseplants, then takes them back outside where we both want them to be

TuttiFrutti - I don't think I'm familiar with a bee that has a red splotch. It sounds a bit familiar, but I don't think we have any bees here in Georgia that have a red marking.

Here is a graphic that has a bumble bee and a carpenter bee and compares them. This is only one type of bumble bee. There are many different kinds and sizes, so the bumble bees in your area may differ some from what you see here.

Tamara - be careful when picking up a spined soldier bug, though I am sure that you held him nicely. Predatory bugs can bite if they feel threatened (i.e. if they are squished, for example). I handle them often and haven't been bitten, so as long as you handle them gently you should be fine, but I'd feel guilty if one bit you.

Soldier beetles on the other hand have chewing mouthparts (they won't have a "beak" like the true bugs do), so they can't stab you. Soldier beetles will exude chemicals sometimes when threatened - they are related to blister beetles, but not as bad - but the chemicals should only irritate sensitive skin. It tastes bad though, so don't get any in your mouth. This defensive mechanism makes the soldier beetles taste bad to birds and other predators.

And if it was a soldier beetle that you were trying to examine - yes, they don't tend to want to stay still. Predatory bug nymphs (like the reddish spiny soldier bug nymphs - and the coloration you described does sound like it could have been a spined soldier bug nymph) also don't like to stay still. They get a little more "sluggish" when they become adults, but they also get a little more sneaky - i.e. they will drop off the plant when you are trying to look at them and then fly away.

I was going to repost the difference between a spined soldier bug and a soldier beetle, but instead I added a link back to the old thread up on the first post for anyone that wants to go back and see the difference. The adult spined soldier bug is posted on post #2 and #30, the nymph is posted on post #36. The soldier beetle is about 8 posts from the bottom of the thread - the second to last picture posted.

Hee - since I do this all the time, I forget sometimes how confusing all this can bee, especially when they name things by very similar names.


And TuttiFrutti, if you come across one of those bees with a red splotch on it, please post a picture or direct me to a link with one, and I'll do my best. Some bees will have yellowish or orangish "blobs" on their back legs and that is the pollen that they are collecting, but I don't suspect that is what you are refferring to.

I shall try to capture pics of our 'bumblebees' with red splotches. Never saw them in Missouri, where I grew up, and not all of the bees here possess these, so it will be fun to find out just what they are! :)

Edited to add that it's fun to watch those bumblebees at work, taking the pollen and wiping it on their backs/hind-quarters and seeing the change in coloration from that. I have no fear in watching, and they don't seem to mind so far.

This message was edited May 19, 2005 1:19 AM

No assasin bugs in Utah... Never seen anything like that. They look scairy!

Drew

Well, I went home at lunch today and was showing my boss some of the things I've been doing around the property. I mentioned that I thought something was wrong with my Cedar Elm because small clusters of leaves were starting to die at the tips of the branches.

He grabbed a branch and pulled it down and we noticed that there were little bumps all over the leaves. They are kinda hard and fuzzy. I brought a leaf back to work and had a co-worker take a picture. (Sorry it's not the best shot)

Has anyone seen anything like this before? If so, should I be really worried? The tree is about 25 years old and last fall I remember seeing web worm on some of the branches. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I was looking at the ziploc bag I have this leaf in and there are little itty bitty brown bugs in it???

This message was edited May 19, 2005 4:01 PM

stephpaige - You are correct in that the picture is not the best, but my suspicion is that these are some kind of galls. Galls are most common on oak trees and most mature oak trees have them. In general, galls are normal and don't do much - especially leaf galls, but I don't know much about galls on trees other than oaks, so I shall have to look around some in my references. My suspicion, however, is that the results are similar, and that they aren't anything to worry about and are likely not the cause of the dying leaves - as you can probably see from the greeness of the leaf above despite the galls. Generally because insect galls take some time to develop on the leaf, if the leaf died, the insects wouldn't be able to finish developing. Did you notice any galls in the dead leaves? Did you notice any kind of blemishes or other damage?

You might have to take some of the dead and or dying leaves - preferably all attached to a twig cut from the tree an inch or two above the dead leaves - to your local experiment station to see if they can see any evidence of insect or disease damage.

Thanks N_B. I didn't notice any on the dead leaves, but I will check again tonight. It's strange how the little balls attach all the way through the leaf. They're really stuck on there, too.

I think I've seen these little bugs before, and man can they bite! It seems like anytime I'm outside in a heavily treed area they always find me. It starts as just a little annoyance on your skin and then it keeps happening over and over and finally I'll look really good and it will be this little tiny bug. I hate them LOL.

I'll look and see where my closest station is. Thanks :)

So, I went to Google and did a search for Galls, and this is what came back (LOL) This is what it looks like.

Figure 2: Hackberry nipple gall caused by a psyllid.

Hi NB: It's not a carpenter bee, although I believe those are around too. The bees I'm referring to are really big and fat, I would say they about the size of a small flying malted milk ball! And they seem to be completely black, although I've never seen one land. They've always been around in L.A., my brother used to have nightmares about being attacked by the "black stingers". But I suspect they are harmless. I tried to find something like it on the net, but no luck. I'd love to know more about them. They are so big and fat it's hard to believe they can fly, and they just slowly buzz around, they take a few swoops around our heads when we are on the patio, but then just lazily buzz off.....

I don't have a picture of my bug, but it looks like a spotted cucumber beetle (which I know all too well), but it is red with black spots. It does fly. I don't think it is a lady bug since it is not round and the head is shaped like that of the cucumber beetle. Any ideas? Or can you tell me a website that has pictures of different bugs that I can see if they have mine. I resisted urge to squish it, but sure would like to get some idea of what it is.

Thanks.

It appears that my bug is Coleomegilla maculata, which thankfully is a lady bug. Glad I didn't squish it.

This message was edited May 19, 2005 8:36 PM

I just found a website with lots of bug pics. Here is the beetle page: http://www.uga.edu/vegetable/beetles.html

shuggins, maybe yours is an asparagus beetle?

NB, thanks, it was probably an older nymph of the spined soldier beetle. It had the right kind of beak, which is why I wanted it to be still, to see the beak. But when I saw it, I couldn't remember what it was supposed to look like LOL. So I went back to the first thread, reread anad studied the photos and descriptions. Surely from now on, I can recall what the predatory beak looks like. Glad I let him go, gladhe didn't bite me. I tend to be gently and just let them crawl all over my hand.

On another note, I have the most fascinating feeding going on in my semi-dwarf peach trees. Near the end of almost every branch, is a lady beetle. That's a LOT of beetles! And there are some other predators too, some I recognized as flies that eat aphids ( i think). Besides this being quite an interesting sight, should I be concerned that there are an excess of aphids? I looked and didn't see any, but they must be eating something? Do I do anything, or let nature take its course?

Thanks for being a bug mentor!

Tamara

stephpaige - I'm glad you found something that looks like your galls. It is amazing the many, many different kinds, and that each gall insect can cause something that looks different. Many of the galls are so distinctive that they can be used to identify the species.

shuggins - I'm glad that you found your lady beetle. Sorry I wasn't here to let you know that's what it was. There are so many different kinds of lady beetles, and as you found, some aren't even the typical round shape. Others have no spots at all, while others are black. Some are even very small - like a large flea beetle. I definitely need to get photographs of more kinds of lady beeteles, but they aren't easy to photograph. This is because 1) they are shiny and that's not easy to compensate for, 2) they are humped, so it's hard to get them entirely in focus and still be close enough to see eyes, feet and other characters (which they often like to keep close to their body), and 3) they like to move around a lot, especially while you are trying to photograph them.

margu - I'll be interetsed to see your bee. You've got me curious now. Our carpenter bees aren't small - I'd say that they are at least an inch long in our area, but they don't really look very "round" in shape.

TamaraFaye - It sounds like your lady beetles are doing a fine job. I'd leave them to it. If they can't find enough to eat and get hungry, they can always fly to somewhere new to try again. As for flies that eat aphids, I posted one example already - that little, shiny green fly on the first thread. It was a Dolichopodidae, a long-legged fly.

Here is another... It is in the family Syrphidae. Theses are commonly called hover flies, because they often hover over flowers. Hover flies come in many different sizes. Many of the smaller ones have larvae that feed on aphids. Some of the larger ones have larvae that feed on organic matter. Since they visit flowers, they presumably could do some pollination as adults. Most adult flies resemble bees or wasps in some way. Some are even fuzzy like bees (a trait also used by some robber flies - example of a non-bee like robber fly, eating a moth, is on the first thread.)

Here's one of the small hover flies.

Here's a larger kind of hover fly. It most likely has a larva that eats organic matter.

I think there were long-legged flies and hover flies. Not sure, as they were buzzing around, possible looking for an un-occupied limb!

May I temporarily hijack this thread to comment on margu's description of her big fat bee? I truly appreciate descriptive word pictures and the clever folks that write them!

Still on the lookout for my red splotched bee to post a pic, but it was rainy and cool again today so he/she likely was just trying to stay warm and dry and didn't discover that my bedroom window was still open. :)

Thanks so much for the clarification. I know my cucumber beetles are spotted cucumber beetles and I also have the striped one. If anyone has found any magic for them, I would love to hear it. Anyway, I would have never picked her out to be a lady beetle, but I am glad. It makes sense because she was on my daylilies which I think are a constant source of aphids. I am new to gardening and trying to live and let live, but the cucumber beetles caught me off guard and are eating EVERYTHING, so now I am suspicious of anything that I can't easily identify.

I love looking at the pictures on this thread. It is very helpful.

Thanks,
Sheila