Natural Science Forum / Biology / Entomology / September 2004

The obvious: I'm not very bug-savvy and I don't know insect-correct
nomenclature.
I just found a large insect crawling around in my Southern California
living room.  It's approximately an inch long and has a fat abdomen

I was out doing yard work on Saturday morning, and came across this
little guy.  He is just over 1" long.  He sat very still for about 10
minutes while I was taking pictures of him.  I can get a couple of
additional angles posted if that will help with the identification.

I used to find stag beetles all the time as a kid in the midwest united
states.
However, I have not seen them on the west coast.
Is there any place one can purchase stag beetles?  (how about preying

All,
I have chipped in on this subject before but am not, as I guess I have
apologized before, a taxonomist. I need to cite any known distinctions,
whether morphological or ecological, between D. plexippus plexippus and D.

Hi, I saw this bug in the parking lot outside my office in Ann Arbor,
MI the other day: http://www.matthewtobey.com/images/hugeassbug.jpg
I'd never seen anything like it around here, so I had to take a
picture. Looks like some kind of a beetle, but I checked a bunch of

I need help identifying bugs.  If anyone would have sugestions on
books I can pick up at my local library or good web resources for such
things I would much apreciate the help.  Thank you all in advance.

I have lived in the Washington Cascades for over 40 years and have
never seen this animal before.  I'm not sure WHAT it is, and would
certainly appreciate help in identifying.  It was in my yard in
mid-August. It had a tiger striped body (orange or salmon with black)

  Hi folks.Idiot question here from newbie. Today in a yard I spotted a
brown butterfly like I've never seen
before.It was smallish, maybe the size of a quarter,and the top of its
wings were a real rich bronze/brown,with tiny black patterns.

My girlfriend ran into a strange looking bug late this summer while in
Dallas. She can't figure out what it is, and neither can I. Any of you
able to help us out, or point us towards somebody else who can?
There's a picture of it up at this web address:

After about 30-35 years I carelessly lost my old BioQuip curved tip
forceps in the field. A few years ago I had ordered a pair from them as
a spare and discovered that although their catalogue drawing (forcep
4735 on page 30) appears to be like the one I lost, the curved tip of

Can anyone identify this?  I have seen a couple of them this year, but
I can't recall ever seeing one before this year.  The body is approx.
1 cm long.  My location is Placerville, CA.  The photo was taken on my
bathroom mirror.

I live in central Texas where we have lots and lots of "dog day"
cicadas. I have never heard their buzzing last much beyond sunset.
That is, until last night. I went to bed at 10:30 p.m. and the
cicadas were still going loud and strong. Tonight they're quiet

I've been searching online but haven't been able to find a match for the bug
in these pictures.  I live in the Phoenix, AZ area and found this guy
wondering around outside apparently to his/her death.
http://members.cox.net/nluft8/DSC01956.JPG

A friend here in Virginia asked me to find out what these wasps are
that he has seen twice; once last year, after tropical storm Isabel
had moved thru the area, and then again this year, after tropical
storm Frances has gone thru. You can see a picture (not a great one;

Could anybody please identify the following insect?  Additionally,
what are the purposes of teethed crescent & golden back?
 http://perlmonks.org/index.pl?updated=20040120054128&node_id=318648
 http://www103.pair.com/parv/tmp/antietam.grey-bug.01.jpg