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| Wheel Bug, a type of Assassin Bug. The semicircular projection on the thorax is characteristic of Wheel Bugs. (photo by Catherine Chastain) |
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| A crop of the photograph above, to show the piercing beak beneath the head. |
Earlier this week (Sept. 26) a Nature Rambler, Catherine Chastain, sent me a photograph of a Wheel Bug (Arilus cristatus), taken on her back door. Her son, Nathan, a budding entomologist, carefully picked it up. Nathan knows that Wheel Bugs can deliver a painful bite with their sharply pointed beak, visible under the head in the enlargement above. It takes a brave and knowledgeable person to handle these creatures. This short video shows many details of the living insect.
A Wheel Bug is a type of Assassin Bug, (family Reduviidae). It is the only Assassin Bug with a semicircular "hump" seen on the top of the thorax. All the Assassin Bugs are predators on other insects.
Click here to view a series of macro photographs by Debbie Roos. She has photos that show the adult, the eggs, the process of hatching and the young nymphs.
The nymphs are black, except for the abdomen, which is a bright orange/red. In animals a prominent red color is often a warning signal that indicates that noxious or otherwise distasteful properties. Some insects with prominent red markings are simply mimicking those that are distasteful or dangerous. Many of the true bugs, including the Wheel Bug, have glands in the thorax that produce foul smelling substances. That is how the Stink Bugs got their name.
I once kept a small jumping spider as a pet, feeding it a variety of small insects that I caught in my backyard. On one occasion I offered it a red and black Wheel Bug nymph and watched as the spider stalked it. The spider crept closer and closer and finally leapt upon the nymph. Almost as soon as it came in contact it jumped away and began grooming, as if it was trying to remove some irritant. The following week I placed another Wheel Bug nymph in the spider's cage. Normally the spider would immediately begin stalking potential food items, but it never showed the slightest interest in this Wheel Bug. That single encounter in the previous week seemed to be sufficient to train the spider not to mess with Wheel Bug nymphs Unfortunately, I couldn't find a non-noxious, red insect to see if the spider was avoiding anything red.
Reference:
University of Florida Entomology Department Featured Creatures.
