Friend or Foe #2

Pic #2

Steph, it looks like an old shoe lace (not much help am I)

LOL! Yeah, it kinda does. It's not a very good pic. I guess if you thought about that colorful telephone wire, ya know how its all bunched together, it's about the width of ONE of those individual wires. It was really really skinny - and LONG. Wow, was it long, like maybe 8 or 9 inches.

It reminds me of some of the garden snakes I saw when I was a kid.

I FOUND IT! Hee hee

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7471.html

It's a very strange looking sliver of brown. Interesting, so it's some where in between "does no harm -to- slightly helpful"

Yeah, and the interesting thing is it's known to be found around a water source of some kind, and I don't have anything around like that. I guess all the rain we got last weekend did it. Strange.

Yup, that's what that critter is.... a horsehair worm! They're kinda cool. Maybe an infested cricket died in a puddle in your garden....

Ok, my turn, again. What are these? Good or bad? yes, they are ugly.

Good gravy konkrete those ARE ugly critters. What kind of camera do you have to get such a good close up? What plant are they on?

-Kim

Yes, you did find it stephpaige - sorry that I wasn't here to help you out. I do sometimes get these in here at the lab, and yes they are often ssociated with a water source. Horesehair worms often end up accidentally in people's pools.

And I meant to ask, Critterologist, what is your specialty in aquatic critters (invertebrates)? When I took Invertebrate zoology, I found a lot of the aquatic critters fascinating though not always easy for me to identify/distinguish from one another.

And konkreteblonde, those appear to be baby bugs (hemiptera), but wether or not they are good or bad I can't be sure. Here... http://bugguide.net/node/view/15538/bgimage is a bunch of baby Wheel bugs (Reduviidae), but these have some black on them that your's don't seem to have. I'm pretty sure that these are baby bugs of some kind though, so maybe try searching the pictures for the Hemiptera at Bugguide and see if any look like yours. I would also suggest waiting to see what they do. You should be able to tell soon whether they are there to eat your plant or other insects.

Thanks, I thought they looked like nymphs of some sort of assassin bug or something close. I'll try to inspect them closer later, if they are still there after the rain.

Hey NB and critter, can either of you help me with this?
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/516921/#top

It's almost time for me to start another thread, but until then I'm going to give a picture of another helpful critter. This is the larva of a firefly (which is actually a beetle in the family Lampyridae). Although the adult beetles aren't known to eat (except certain females that lure other species of males to eat), the larva are predatory on various insects and other critters, including, for some species, snails. Firefly larvae generally live beneath fallen logs and leaf debris. Their head is usually concealed, and that is why this larva appears to be headless.

And just in case anyone needs a reminder. Here is what an adult firefly looks like. Unlike many beetles, these are fairly soft bodied. The phosphorescent part is underneath on its "butt". This is a pretty good sized species, but they can vary in size, and some are smaller.

And "firfely" reminds me - a general rule of thumb... actual flies have two part names: Deer fly, house fly, hover fly, etc. Insects that are named "fly" but are actually something else, taxonomically speaking, have one word names: Butterfly, dragonfly, firefly, damselfly, etc.

Okay here's an adult firefly.

Most of the critters in the yard have been easy to ID, but I have one I can't seem to find anywhere and it's quite distinctive. About 1/4", oval with small head, longish antenae (for size of head), six legs (visible unlike lady beetles), no wings, and candy apple red, very shiny. I thought the bright red color would be an easy clue. The closest I can find is the Scarlet Plant Bug (http://bugguide.net/node/view/13882) but differences are no "shoulders" on the ones I've seen, they were all red and brighter, and they were more round. They were near or on lillies, which fits. Could it be an immature stage? I was hoping it was a "good guy" since it's cute :) At least they're easy to spot!

~Kat

Thanks for the firefly pics! I meant to look these up the other night. I rarely see fireflies now, I assume because of chemicals, but have seen 3 or 4 in the last week. I was so excited to be able to show my 6 yr old! Now I just need to find a horned (or as we say, horny) toad for him to see. I saw one recently on a country road. It's the first one I have seen in years. He was gone when I turned around tho.

Try this for the horned toad

http://www.desertusa.com/april96/du_hliz.html

Well, the "cute" bug is the red lily beetle and it is definitely a foe. Once I had a name, research was a lot easier! Picking them off and finding their eggs (which are orange) seems the most effective. Oh, and they do fly, but not far. The first one I found must have been lazy, just fell to the ground when I prodded it.

~Kat

Here is a spider that was among m seedlings. He is about 1.25 inches long with some grey on his parts. Beady black eyes and flourescent green dots under his eyes - that look like green eyes. Didn't look too friendly to us!!

What is he?

-Kim

Kim, cute guy, I think he is in the wolf spider family, definitely a friend, keep him around. Wolf spiders can't pierce your skin if they try to bite you, because they biters are too small...

koncreteblonde, I saw something in my bug book today that looked like your nymphs, but already forgot :-( will look for it again...

Today I caught and flushed a Harlequin Bug and some cabbage looper. NB, just out of curiousity, are Cabbage Loopers the same as inch worms? My son thought the Harlequin was pretty and didn't want to destroy it, I had to explain that 4 generations of those bugs would destroy our food.

Kat - I'm glad you found your insect. Sorry that I wasn't here to give you help - but I likely would've steered you towards bugs (Hemiptera) anyway. Sometimes it is difficult to tell bugs and beetles apart just from a description. It's much easier with a picture because then I can see the distinctive top "wings" of the bugs versus the elytra (the hard wings) of the beetles.


Kim: That cute spider is a jumping spider (family Salticidae). They are similar to the wolf spiders (family Lycosidae) that TamaraFaye mentioned in that they are solitary hunters (they don't catch insects in a web, they actively search for them), but jumping spiders are generally active in the daytime. Don't freak out, but the shiny green things are the fangs. Jumping spiders are generally harmless though, and they are "curious", often jumping on things that come into their field of vision - such as a camera lens while you are trying to photograph them.

When I was younger, I used to feed the jumping spiders at my Nana's house in Florida, so they were gentle enough to come up and take a mosquito out of my fingers.


I'm going to start a new thread now and link back to this one. See you all on the new thread.

I'm so glad I wasn't your Nana....you would have given me a heart attack! LOL
Pati

Thanks much, Night. When the count went from one to three to more than twenty over three days, I suspected they weren't friendly :) They either have a funny life cycle or they really don't like fish emulsion! I have a mild solution and figgered it wouldn't hurt. I squished quite a few, also, and only found one batch of eggs. Only one or two for the last couple of days. The lilies are doing fine, just a bit "holey".

~Kat

Here is a link to the new thread, see everybody over there!:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/518029/