The Backyard Arthropod Project

This week we have a bonus bug, courtesy of my daughter

So, while I was finishing off the posting yesterday about the western conifer seed bug, my daughter came charging into the room with something in her hand, announcing “Take picture, Dada! Take picture!”[1] So, I did. This is what she had:

This is the infamous assassin bug once again[2], only a nymph this time instead of an adult.

It was very 3-dimensional, making it really hard to get the whole insect in focus, but I tried. As I mentioned earlier, assassin bug nymphs tend to have lint and dirt stuck all over them for camouflage (this one probably had more before Sam handled it, and most likely knocked most of it off, but it is still pretty dirt-encrusted). The abdomen is interesting, it is deeply dished.

I’m not sure why that is, maybe it helps hold camouflage material on its back, or maybe it just lets the abdomen expand a lot when it eats. This time, I also got a side view of the mouthparts:

That thick tube is used both to quickly inject a large volume of digestive fluids into prey, and to suck out the nourishing slurry that the prey’s insides get converted into.

I’m beginning to think that being bitten by a non-bloodsucking assassin bug is kind of like being hit by lightning: bad if it happens, but not terribly likely. I mean, Sam was handling this one pretty roughly[3], and all it was doing was trying to get away. They obviously aren’t rare in houses, and I’d think that if they made a habit of taking a nip out of people, I would hear more about it.

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[1] She’s only a bit over two and still working on the whole “language” thing, and I didn’t realize that she understood that Dada is going around taking pictures of insects. I guess she’s got the idea. At any rate, she’s got no fear of insects whatsoever (in spite of having been stung by a yellowjacket once already), and I expect we’re going to be hearing a lot from her on this site in the future.

[2] Since we already established that Reduvius personatus lives in our house, I’d say there are good odds that this is one of them.

[3] She had it by the hind legs. She was really proud of it, too: when I put it into a jar so it could be refrigerated for photography, she wanted to hold the jar and admire it for the longest time — she wouldn’t let me put it in the refrigerator for almost an hour.

Other articles related to this topic:

• Assassin Bug
• Thread-legged Bug
• Ant-Mimic Jumping Spider
• Male Goldenrod Crab Spider
• June Beetle