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Beetles and bugs in our garden |
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Bugs
Although to Amy, just about all pictures on these pages feature "bugs", zoologically
the only bugs are found here.
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Attack of the killer bug! The wheelbug (Arilus cristatus) is a large
member of the assassin bug family, named for the cog-like protrusion on its
back. I found this one chomping down on some prey, clinging to the bottom of a
leaf.
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This one is just a youngster (same species), but already looking plenty fierce
with his red fang. I found him hiding in between some leaves on a young tree,
in mid-June.
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Another, smaller, assassin bug, on the lookout for flying snacks near a
Mexican sunflower.
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Laying in wait on a Maximillian sunflower petal, this ambush bug (Phymata
species) is ready to jump its unsuspecting prey - bees and flies that visit flowers
for nectar. It's normally found on goldenrod (the next plant over in our
garden), where it is better camouflaged.
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I found two of these colorful bugs crawling around the seedpods of my swamp
milkweed. Sure enough, they are small milkweed bugs (Lygaeus kalmii), and
belong to the 'seed bugs'. See, some things just all make sense :-)
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Several of these four-lined plant bugs (Poecilocapsus lineatus) were
scattered across the garden in late June. This one was stationed on a costmary
plant - I guess it likes that bubblegum smell.
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This plant bug belongs to the genus Alydus, the broad-headed bugs. It
feeds on plant juices. I found this one on a variegated lysimachia, on
low-growing foliage.
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Stinkbugs
Very recognizable because of their distinctive shape, these bugs come in many
color patterns and sizes. I've collected snapshots of a few of the ones found
in our garden, just so you can admire them up close without fear of malodor.
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This colorful little bug was hiding deep inside an agastache flowerspike.
Although I had tentatively identified it as the last nymph stage (5th
instar) of Nezara hilaris, a better fit may be the 3rd instar of a
species of Euschistus.
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And this is probably the adult form of the little one above. This green stinkbug
was lounging on a pear in our orchard.
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Another plentiful stinkbug in our garden is the twice-stabbed stinkbug (Cosmopepla lintneriana).
This one, too, is rather fond of agastache flowerspikes. The adult is small,
about 1/8" (3 mm).
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In its own
way, this stinkbug is kind of handsome, too. Unfortunately, it's the brown
marmorated stinkbug (Halyomorpha halys), an agricultural pest
from East Asia that was first found in the US in 2001, of all places in
Allentown.
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This one looks different, but is actually a nymph (juvenile stage) of the marmorated
stinkbug at left.
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A couple of waterstriders (species Gerris) on the edge of a waterlily pad, trying to ensure
the survival of the species. With plenty of predators around, let's hope their
offspring is numerous!
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Beetles
A rather diverse group of insects - one day I'll read up on them and figure out
what makes a beetle a beetle and a bug a bug. For now, just some photos:
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Ain't it marvellous? A bright shiny pink thing on a very spiny solanum branch.
According to the friendly folks at BugGuide, this is a potato beetle larva.
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The next year, I found more of the larvae - and also a few adult specimens.
Further research told me that these are in fact false potato beetles (species
Leptinotarsa juncta) recognizable by brown stripes interrupting the
white and black ones.
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Asian lady beetles (Harmonia axyridis) just love our empress tree,
probably because the aphids like it too.
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This dandy is a longhorn beetle, more specifically a red milkweed beetle (
Tetraopes tetrophthalmus). In late June, our swamp milkweed flowers were full
of them.
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All of a sudden one nice day in late summer, there were dozens of these orange
fellas hovering around. Turns out they are goldenrod soldier beetles, or Pennsylvania
leatherwings (Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus). While we have a good
supply of goldenrod in our garden, our visitors seemed to prefer our culinary
herbs. Gourmand beetles - go figure.
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The beetle I least like to see in our garden - the one that defoliates quite
a wide range of plants in mid-summer: the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica).
We really haven't tried to fight them: The milky spore fungus is a natural
control that attacks the white grubs overwintering in the lawn, but takes a few
years to become effective and is expensive for the expanse of grass we'd have
to cover. Grub control chemicals seem like overkill, counter to our mostly
organic gardening approach, and I'd be afraid they'd kill beneficials as well.
The pheromone traps are controversial - do they help, or do they merely attract
more of the nemeses to the gardens they're in? So we don't do much more than
make rounds of the garden once in a while, knocking however many of them as we
can manage into a bucket of water. Hardly very effective...
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The spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) is usually
found on flowers, in this case red flax.
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Weevils
These scurriers with odd-looking antennae are members of the beetle order
(coleoptera). I haven't found many so far, and most of those have been
tiny.
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I'm pretty sure this is a rose curculio (Merhynchites bicolor). It fits,
because I found them all over our Virginia rose in late June. It's classified
with the leafrolling weevils, but I saw no evidence of that behavior (lots of
procreation, though).
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A bunch of these tiny grey weevils were feasting on hollyhock leaves. I tried
to get a better picture, but it's hard to focus a camera up close to a running
bug!
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Visitors to this page have left the following comments| FrankG | Jul 03, 2005 | Very nice pictures and nice breif blurbs |
| Megan B | Sep 24, 2005 | You helped me with my bug project! I had a wheel bug and had no idea what it was! Thanks! Nice pictures, they're well-taken! |
| Joy Derksen, Manatee County Fl. Master | Jan 29, 2007 | Excellent photo of an ambush bug, phymata, which a client brought in to the extension center to identify (after it bit a family member). My son, an entomologist at the U. of Fl., referred me to your site for a confirming picture after identifying for us. |
| emmrealtor@aol.com | Jan 29, 2007 | Hello,
Thanks for your help. The Ambush Bug, Phymata did a good job of biting me. I had no idea what it was! Glad to hear it is not poisonous!!!
Jeanne
I didn't know they bit people! I haven't seen one since I took that photo, so I guess the danger level is low. |
| Henry | Jun 22, 2007 | Hey thanks for the great pictures. My mom found one of those red milkweed beetles in her garden on a milkweed plant she let grow for the butterflies. Now we know what kind of insect it is. |
| morgan | Jul 23, 2007 | These bugs are amazing,i wish i could find cool bugs like that!I love wierd bugs,you've showed me some bugs I've never evan thought of! |
| james jackson | Oct 27, 2007 | I recently glanced at an article in the newspaper about stinkbugs in the area but never got to go in depth in the story so I never knew what one looked like until I came across your site. I'd like to say thank you for enlightening me on this bug I've been finding in my home this past summer .now I know just what it it I'm dealing with, the brown marmorated stinkbug. |
| Lisa | Dec 18, 2007 | Hi, I am surfing online trying to figure out what type of beetles are around our house. I did not see it on your page, and wondered if you could help me figure it out? They are small, the length size of a pinky nail, maybe a bit larger, black in color, with these almost tribal looking red lines that criss cross on their backs. They are similar to one you have above witht he red lines, but ours are still very different from those. I have not been able to find them online - thanks for any help you can offer on your page! Your page, by the way is very informational and the pictures are great.
Hi Lisa - I'm afraid I don't know much about all these bugs. I just get help from more knowledgeable people to identify the ones I find in my garden. If you can take a picture of one, you'll find that bugguide.net is a great place to get an ID. |
| Mark | Mar 17, 2008 | Hi, Rob. Incredible insect pictures, once I started looking I had to look at them all, that is until I saw the brown marmorated stinkbug, and saw that it was from East Asia, and was found first in the U.S. in Allentown. Until recently and for three years prior, I worked out of the old Mack plant in Allentown. I drove truck delivering shingles and apparently stinkbugs, to many locations in Pa, NJ, DE, and MD on flat-bed trailers parked right next to the freight RR tracks. Other trucks went to much more widespread locations including Canada. Also, I delivered many stinkbugs to my house in the Poconos as I continued to find them inside thru most of the winter. What great hitchhikers they are! A mystery solved. No wonder I never saw one till I worked in Allentown. Now, back to the pictures. |
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Last modified:
September 02, 2007
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