Tag: Hemiptera
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149/150: Not your typical song scales
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hemiptera: Sternorrhynncha: Coccoidea: Diaspididae: Quadraspidiotus: Quadraspidiotus perniciosus (Comstock, 1881) Scale bugs are some pesky critters. Belonging to the order Hemiptera, they have a defining beak like characteristic used to suck out the contents of its prey. The females are typically immobile and have a waxy scale like surface whereas the males have…
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143/150: Monarchs aren’t the only ones that need milkweed
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hemiptera: Lygaeidae: Oncopeltus: Oncopeltus fasciatus: (Dallas, 1852) Large milkweed bugs are a member of the family Lygaeidae, otherwise known as seed bugs. They get their name from their association with the milkweed plant. They lay their eggs in milkweed pod crevasses and the seeds provide a food and defense source for them.…
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127/150: Happy Halloween! The Masked Hunter wears a costume of disguise!
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Reduviinae: Reduvius: Reduvius personatus (Linnaeus, 1758) The Masked Hunter is a true bug belonging to the family Reduviidae, also known as the Assassin Bugs. In accordance to their dangerous sounding common name they are known to have a painful bite, but they are relatively harmless towards humans as they don’t…
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92/150: The Canadian Cicada, true North strong and free
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Okanagana: Okanagana canadensis (Provancher, 1889) Canadian Cicada is a very fitting name for this species as it is the most northerly found cicada, being seen as far north as the North West Territories. They can be found throughout Canada and the northern United States. Although it has been found in many…
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71/150: A lesser known truth of giant water bugs
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hemiptera: Belostomatidae: Belostomatinae: Belostoma: Belostoma flumineum (Say, 1832) Happy Father’s Day! Belostoma flumineum is a member of the genus Belostoma, commonly known as giant water bugs. These predatory insects can be found in wetlands, marshes, and ponds across North America, and can grow to be about 2.5 cm long. Though commonly known…
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Wild water bugs and warm weather
As part of this summer’s ongoing BIObus adventures Adrian, Connor, Nate and I got the chance to go hunting for arthropods in the beautiful Bruce Peninsula last week. With the weather being more than welcoming, we eagerly strapped on our waders and set out to explore the diverse aquatic habitats of the Grey-Bruce region. One…
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Sweeping Into Action
This week we deployed a sampling team of 5 to set up 3 sites for standardized sampling at rare Charitable Research Reserve in Cambridge. Four colleagues and I set out early Monday morning to get started on our days’ work. I was eager to get back out to the field and set up some traps.…
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Imaging Insects From Saudi Arabia
Since early May we have been focusing on completing all the images of specimens from Canadian National Parks and the Mecca region in Saudi Arabia from the Global Malaise Trap Program. Of the specimens I have imaged, there are some unique species from Saudi Arabia that stood out. Their life history has always intrigued me.