I've been looking around quite a bit for ID's for these bugs.
Does anyone recognize any of these? Any clues?
All of these bugs were found in Phoenix, AZ, Sonoran Desert
#1 a colorful Beetle
SOLVED: Cystoedemus armatus
This message was edited Aug 28, 2006 10:48 AM
#2
this caterpillar is 5/8 inch long
#3
This caterpillar is 1.25 inches long
#4
This click beetle is 5/8 inch long
#5
These are in the Order of Hemiptera; I think they in the family; Coreidae
Genus? species? 5/8 inch long
SOLVED: Narnia pallidicornis
This message was edited Aug 26, 2006 1:36 PM
I think that # 5 could be the Leaf-footed Bug - Acanthocephala terminalis http://bugguide.net/node/view/11675/bgimage
Here is a little help. Pic #1 is a meloid, one of the blister beetles. The narrow prothorax and short wing covers are the characters. Pic #2 looks very like a cabbage looper, but there are jillion loopers. see: http://mint.ippc.orst.edu/looperid.htm Pic #3 is a stumper. Perhaps an Arctiid larva? Pic #4 isn't a click beetle, but is probably a longhorn beetle. If the eyes curve around the base of the antenna, then it is in the family Cerambycidae. It is a large family with a lot of species. Pic #5 is a Leptoglossus. Acanthocephala are a lot larger and A. terminalis has red tips on the antennae (usually!), but both genera are leaf-footed bugs in the family Coreidae. There are several western species of Leptoglossus and I am not familiar with this one. The hind legs are odd in that the tibia do not have the typical flag. What was it feeding on? That would help narrow the search down.
-FM
#5 was sitting on a cholla cactus, not sure if it was eating it.
Yes, that helped. It is a close relative of the Leptoglossus, a Narnia. Here's a picture on Bug Guide:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/52155
Now that I know what I am looking for, I can see the reduced tibial leaf. The femoral spines are also very pronounced. I have caught them on the Texas-Mexico border before back in the 70s and remember it as N. pallidicornis. I don't know how many species there are. They were always on Opuntia when I saw them, but I don't know why they wouldn't feed on other cacti. If caught in Arizona, it could be something new that has come across the border. Or not. My knowledge is sketchy past the genus level. Here is a note about N. femorata (a synonym?) being in the southwest:
http://fulltext10.fcla.edu/DLData/UF/UF00000092/file37.pdf
If someone else here on DG doesn't get the ID for you and you don't have a heteropterist in your hip pocket, I know a few and can see what they say.
-FM
Thanks hill5422 & kennedyh,
Here it says that N. femorata is a different species.
www (dot) itis.usda.gov:8080/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=108347
I'll go with #5 being Solved as Narnia pallidicornis
This message was edited Jul 29, 2006 4:45 PM
I'll add three more.
Here's #6......a very common tiny black beetle about 1/8 inch long
#7
A millipede one inch long
SOLVED: Flat-backed Millipede (Oxidus gracilis)
This message was edited Aug 26, 2006 1:33 PM
Oops! here's the #7 photo
#8
A slug I haven't located an ID on.
Is number two perhaps a Cabbage Looper? I know cabbage loopers are not the only caterpillar that crawl using such a motion, but might be a cabbage looper. They turn into those little white or yellow butterflies that you see flitting around by your cabbage patch....where they come to LAY EGGS on your cabbage. Boooooh!!!
CJ
I think # 7 is the Flat-backed Millipede (Oxidus gracilis) http://www.uma.pt/congresso.iberico.entomologia/insect_mad/fotos_html/diapositivo38.htm
http://bugguide.net/node/view/26414
Order: Polydesmida
Family: Paradoxosomatidae
kennedyh, I think you're right on #7
#7 is SOLVED.
#8 is likely in Limacidae
#3 looks like a Yellow Woolly Bear moth, except I can't see the gold blobs along the side
http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/moth_caterpillars&page=all
if you go to the link at the top 'all galleries' you will get many more links to other bugs.
I found some that look the same shape as #1 Cysteodemus
http://www.meloidae.com/meloidae/index.html
you willneed to click on meloinae, then eupomphini to find it
#1 does indeed look very like the Desert Spider Beetle - Cysteodemus armatus http://bugguide.net/node/view/14860/bgimage
#1 does look like Cystoedemus armatus except it should be white. I found a pic of a yellow one here on an ID site, they are perplexed
http://whatsthatbug.com/beetles10.html
Yes, the Yellow Wooly Bear - Spilosoma virginica and the Wooly Bear - Pyrrharctia isabella seem to be very close looking except the length of the hairs. I wonder if either of those are native to my area, which I'll check on.
On the coloring of #1, I would hazard to say it might have something to do with the age of the beetle. I seen the white version and the black version of the same species, and I've seen a version on the web somewhere of one that was partially white, like maybe it was changing color somehow. ^Shrugs^
http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/image?query=Spilosoma+virginica&page=2&topQuery=Spilosoma+virginica
note the above in middle top link, an 'ar' after the .com, menaing Arizona?
The Pyrrharctica has a distinct reddish band
http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/image?query=Pyrrharctia+isabella&page=2&topQuery=Pyrrharctia+isabella
I don't think the "ar" stands for the state Arizona. I would think if they were going to put the state designation, it would probably be "az".... I'm not sure what it means.
"org" = organization
"edu" = educational
"biz" = business
"gov" = government
and then you have the individual Countries/region, like "uk", etc.
but I've never seen one for individual states within the USA.
The Spilosoma virginica in this link looks deep orangeish.
http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/image?query=Spilosoma%20virginica&page=2&topQuery=Spilosoma%20virginica
Here's a pic of a 'partially' white Cystoedemus armatus
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?stat=BROWSE_IMG&query_src=photos_browseimgs_insect_sci&where-lifeform=Insect&where-taxon=Cysteodemus+armatus
The Cystoedemus has to be armatus, there must be conditions/age which affect the colour.
The Spilosoma does look orangeish, I wonder if it's flash effect, after all it is darker on the pbase.com site.
I put the web address in with 'ar', it's Argentina!
I got shut down!
This site mentions, at the bottom, Yellow bear being pale yellow, whitish or reddish
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/300-399/nb314.htm
http://www.cirrusimage.com/Yellow_Bear_Caterpillar.htm
Interesting article mentions the amount of black in a Wooly Bear's coat indicates how close to winter it is, this could be so with the Yellow W B
http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/animals/species/2900.html
Colour variation mentioned here
"Spilosoma virginica caterpillars are densely coated with yellow or orange (occasionally even red or black) setae (hairs"
http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/ssvirgin.htm
Interesting info on the color variations.
This photo of the dark caterpillar was taken on March 11, 2005, which is early Spring here.
In the newton link it says this...
"Almost invariably, the first three or more
segments are black but occasionally all the rest are reddish. Most
scientists agree, however, that this caterpillar is not a weather prophet;
that the relative amounts of red and black are due to conditions of
temperature, and perhaps moisture, during its early life."
The hairs still seem too long on the 'Yellow Wooly Bear' to me.
I haven't found any info on what regions it native to other than possibly Virginia, US. & maybe Argentina & Cook County, Illinois.
I agree on the yellow beetle ID.
This message was edited Aug 28, 2006 10:45 AM
The hair length on most pics I see do look too long for the wooly bear, I agree, but they don't on the pbase link.
I think the Wooly Bear can 'almost' be eliminated, but kept in mind.
