Kayla, Joshua and I have created a bug hunting ritual into our summer daily lives. When weather permits, not rainning or too hot, we take a little walk on our farm or to "Larry's Lane" to look for bugs. We sometimes also find interesting creatures in our herb garden. Our rule is simple: If it looks scary, (like a spider, or something that we don't recognize) leave it where you find it. I always bring my camera and document our findings so we can remember what we saw.
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This blog is to showcase our findings, some whom we left in nature, some whom made it to our bug catcher for a short trip home and release later at the end of the day, lastly some whom we kept a little longer for observation. No animals are purposely harmed during this adventure, occasionally just a little smoothered by Joshua and we try our best to return every creature to their home just as we found them.


Friday, July 25, 2008

Wheel Bug - Arilus Cristatus


We found this guy in our herb garden, on our overgrown dill plant. He looks fascinating, especially with the shinny golden back. He moves really slow and doesn't seemed to be bothered by us at all. Don't be fooled though, he is the largest of the assassin bugs family, the mature adult is about 25 to 30 mm long, with females being larger than males. Don't pick him up because he can deliver a painful bite, even to humans.



We found him first in the forest during our walk. It turns out that he is a nymph (junior) to the Wheel Bug.

For more information: http://bugguide.net/node/view/454
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1 comment:

Tori Curtiss said...

Wow! You found some great bugs. I will have to show them to the boys. Happy hunting!
Tori

August 1, 2008 at 12:23 PM

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