My husband and I spent most of the day trimming dead branches off our oak trees and while working, I spotted an orange bug on the ground and ran for my camera. I used the macro lens and when I viewed the close-up images on the computer I noticed another dark insect body on the ground next to the orange one. I thought maybe the orange one was eating the black one. I had no clue as to the identification of this orange insect. After a lot of time researching online (and becoming quite frustrated), I discovered something very cool . . . this is a wheel bug nymph that has recently molted and that's the black discarded skin or exoskeleton next to it. Wheel bugs go through five molts before becoming mature adults and with each succeeding molt, the nymph gets a little more gray and black. The Wheel Bug is in the Assassin Bug family. I didn't know anything about wheel bugs or assassin bugs before taking this photo . . . it seems every day I learn something new thanks to this project.
I love it when I'm directed not to miss something! I've NEVER seen the likes of this, not heard about this insect or even the family he belongs to (does give me the shivers!) I can see why you were drawn to researching this one (much as I had to come up with a name before posting the butterfly!) Now I'm curious to read up on assassin bugs!
Perhaps most remarkable of all in your photo is that you came upon it with the exoskeleton and the new bug!
You were drawn back into the world-wide classroom again today, Gayle!
Quite amazing! How wonderful that you came across this bug whilst working away. Super capture and thank you for sharing the information about this bug ... one I had never heard of nor seen the likes of!
Just amazing! If I were still teaching I would certainly be showing this to my students! The youtube was fascinating and I am just sure that insect heaved a big sigh of relief when it was finally rid if its' old self! It's so pretty in the orange color, especially those dots of darker orange on its' abdomen. Shame it won't stay that way! Thanks so much for sharing the photo and the info.
What a discovery to find the black shape and figure out what it was. Great macro! How cool. I appreciated your link to the video too -- it was creepy with that music playing
What a discovery and what an education. I love to discover new things as a result of looking more closely to take a photograph. Ive never seen anything like this before.
April 24th, 2017
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Perhaps most remarkable of all in your photo is that you came upon it with the exoskeleton and the new bug!
You were drawn back into the world-wide classroom again today, Gayle!