Insects as most of us know come in a vast array of forms. Still one can be truly amazed at what they come upon. Patty was recently working on the SugarTyme crabapples along the drive in front of Newfield when she came across a pair of odd creatures – wheel bugs, Arilus cristata.
They are related to assassin bugs and as that name implies I guess, they eat other insects. The old “inject you with toxins that dissolve your soft tissue then I suck you dry” routine. More or less. Wikipedia has a bit on them here. Here you will find lots of info on assassin and ambush bugs at UK.
They are very well camouflaged as is demonstrated here.
I love their architecture. Kinda looks like a vehicle in a Mad Max movie.
I assume they were having sex. But human sex is complicated enough so I won’t say without a doubt that that was what was happening.
But I did read they mate in the fall, the female lays her eggs, they hatch in spring and the cycle begins anew. The timing would be pretty close.
Here’s some more pics of our pair of freaks. Enjoy.
Filed under: Horticulture
August 24th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Irvin have I told you lately what a special special man I think you are. Another superb blog…thanks Patty for the observation. Lol
August 25th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Thank you Denise. That is very sweet. I got tomato horn worm shots this week……
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