Weevils

Alfalfa weevil (Hypera postica)

I don't know about you, but whenever I hear the word "weevil," I picture one of those annoying little black bugs that I sometimes find in my flour bin. So when I found these small gray bugs on our dining room floor and the front porch, I was clueless. Post them on Bugguide then!

Which I did. 

"Looks like some kind of weevil," someone posted back. Hmmmm. So I did a little searching.....

"Maybe an alfalfa weevil?" I asked. 

"You nailed it," came the reply. 

 

A nonnative bug, it seems. 

"I'd say over a third of weevil photos that pop up on Bugguide show adventive species of Old World origin," v belov wrote.

According to the University of Illinois Extension, this species is "one of the primary defoliators of alfalfa."  

Wonder what it's doing here in our Wildscape?

And our house?

A ladybug and other stuff

Harmonia axyridis

I try to photograph every ladybug we find in our Wildscape so we can submit a report to the Lost Ladybug Project at Cornell University. This is a multi-colored Asian ladybug, an introduced species from Europe. So far, I've contributed 20 images to this research project.

Matelea biflora

Speaking of research projects, I submitted these photos of a purple milkweed vine seedpod (with common milkweed bugs below) and a prairie verbena going to seed to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's Image Gallery. 
 

Glandularia bipinnatifida

A cool fly...working on ID.

One lone oxblood lily blooming!

Watch out for this bug

Today's edition of the San Antonio Express-News has a report about a dangerous parasite carried by certain species of kissing bugs: Chagas disease carrier may be threat in Texas.

"For years, scientists have known that the sweetly named kissing bug found throughout South and Central Texas carries the parasite that causes Chagas disease, a major killer in parts of Latin America," reporter Don Finley wrote."What wasn't known is if those Texas bugs infect people, although they clearly infect animals — including bomb-sniffing dogs at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and nonhuman primates at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute."

According to the article, "five species of triatoma bugs found around San Antonio carry the infection, the most common of them Triatoma gerstaeckeri — a flat, dark brown teardrop-shaped bug with lighter stripes mostly obscured by its wings. Adults are often more than an inch in length."

New-to-me moth and bug

Phigalia denticulata

I photographed these three critters while fetching the agriope spider sac on the porch today. Then I posted them to Bugguide.net for IDs.

This evening, I received a reply from Randy Hardy about the moth: "Small world (bug joke!). I'm Irene Cage's brother-in-law. Blanco must be warming up like Tucson is right now–love this time of year. Anyway, I THINK your moth is a Phigalia denticulata. Some nice pics of it at the Moth Photographers Group. Wait for the experts–I'm just learning. Have a great day!" Thanks, Randy!

A P.S. from Randy later:"I stick to moths mostly. We're lucky to have Maury Heiman, a moth expert from the Hill Country, here on BG. You might look through his photos HERE to help get IDs on moths (always fun to do the detective work!)."

The next two are bugs. No, really, BUGS. AIn the genus Brochymen–rough stink bugs. Cool, eh?

Brochymena chelonoides
(per Bugguide.net updated October 31, 2011)

What a bug

Spot-sided coreid
Hypselonotus punctiventris
The kind folks at Bugguide.net helped me identify this very interesting-looking bug.

Red beetle

Beetle or bug? I need to learn the differences so I can better guess in the field. I spotted this little fella this morning on a zexmenia leaf andsent this image to Bugguide.net. I guessed "red bug" (there's a family of "red bugs"). Wrong! Natalie Hernandez on Bugguide.net says "a flea beetle of some sort that has just emerged from its pupa and has not hardened yet (which is called teneral.) Its elytra will eventually harden to cover its abdomen." She said my specimen is similar to a Disonycha leptolineata.

I thought it was cool. Bright red!

Lost Ladybug Project and a new bug

A new ladybug species in our Wildscape! Meet the twice-stabbed ladybug (Chilocorus stigma). I spotted it yesterday while checking out spiders and bugs with my young neighbor friend, Peyton, and his buddy, Eddie. Peyton's little brother Davis, too. He wandered over later and joined us. And yes, I uploaded it to the Lost Ladybug Project.

Below is a mystery insect found in our Wildscape back in May, and I never got it identified. I posted it on Bugguide.net this morning and quickly got an ID: a white-margined burrower bug (Sehirus cinctus). Hey, I have photos of the nymphs (posted below)! I shot those May 31 in the back yard after James found a bunch of them under some rocks. Very interesting!

Adult
Sehirus cinctus

Nymph
Sehirus cinctus

Nymphs
Sehirus cinctus

That's one flat bug

We were sitting outside the other night with friends in the back yard, under the live oaks, when I came across these VERY flat tiny bugs. Literally. A few were crawling on James, and I found one or two on me. I'd never seen anything like them before. When I say flat, I mean FLAT. But I didn't get any photos. However, last night, I got a second chance when I spotted one on our bathroom floor. So I snagged some pictures to post. Then this morning, I got on Bugguide.net and decided to do a random search for "flat bugs." Sounded like a good description to me. Lo and behold, there is an ENTIRE family of flat bugs! Honest! It's called Aradidae. And ours appears to be in the genus of Neuroctenus or Mezira. These bugs apparently feed on fungi found under bark, which would explain how some probably fell on us. Mystery solved!

Stink bug nymphs

Stink bug nymphs, LOTS of them! James found them under some rocks.
(Heteroptera)

One bright bug

Milkweed assassin bug
Zelus longipes

(nymph)

Bugguide.net

Four-lined plant bug

Poecilocapsus lineatus

I've been using Bugguide.net for a long while to help in identifying insects and spiders. But I'd never uploaded my own pics and sought help in identifying unfamiliar specimens. Wow, they're GREAT. Contributing editor Ken Wolgemuth IDed this bug, which I thought was a beetle. Today, Maury J. Heiman, another contributing editor with Bugguide.net, quickly confirmed the ID of the moth image I submitted (and blogged about today as well).

Thanks, Bugguide.net guys!!!!!