So this summer I decided I would take a pic of every bug I see. Soooo I ordered a big brick of an insect manual, but while I wait, can someone identify this gorgeous guy?
Japanese Beetle. Very common in the midwest.
Thanks, I am actually at Long Island, New York, i'll assume they are common all over the country?
>>277554Not sure, but you literally cannot go outside during the summer and not see these things.
He kinda reminded me of the beetle monster thing in Godzilla 1984
What manual is it? I want to get a bug book too.
I looked around and picked up http://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Insects/dp/0394507630/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215721290&sr=1-1It is picture heavy which is what I need, I am a total insect newbie and can wait to pick up Peterson's when I need more details.
I snapped one other picture today, it looks like a fire ant, black at the back gradually turning to rich red. Am I right? And I swearrrr I won't keep starting id threads.
Japanese Beetle
Just took a pic of this guy.
beautiful
>>277584I found him on my zucchini, so i brought him over to some other leaves he could nosh on to his hearts content
>>277584I've seen those in a book before, but I'm drawing a blank.
There's a guy on YouTube I know, Shooter12point7, who takes some pretty good videos of spiders. If you like bugs, you might want to take a look at him.
>>277551thats a june bug nigga.
>>278035When I took a picture of him, he lifted his two hind legs up, which is a characteristic of japanese beetles (or jitterbugs.) Plus, hes got white dots going along his body.
heres todays find
>>278172awesome!
this guy just sat there completely still for 5 minutes while i took pictures of him, than when i got up he flew away.
>>278176Oh man, I wonder what these guys are, I saw a lot of them today while I was out interning and they would linger for minutes on end on my t-shirt. And your caterpillar with water droplets photo is AMAZING.
>>278195i've been racking my brain on these insect websites, but theyre a pain to navigate, they use latin names. My book should arrive some time next week.If you're serious about the white caterpillar pic (the only reason being it was taken on a 50 dollar camera lol) but I saw him after I watered some roses. The picture doesn't do him justice, it was another reminder of how beautiful insects are.
>>278196The insect sites give me a hard time too, I think I found our fly buddies here but yeah this is in latin too:http://bugguide.net/node/view/7176I usually just toss the latin name into wikipedia and it usually will translate it into the common name, like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucilia_sericataInsects rule, I've been out there with my camera too and got some nice shots of dragonflies of all sorts of colors.
>>278213oh man thank you so much, you have much more patience than me. I am brand new to photography, all of these pics were taken with a camera I got in chinatown last year, I ordered a Fujitsu s700 yesterday, so I can't wait to play with that. I would love to hear any tips or advice you can give me.
last one before work, this guy was a pain to photograph and it was the best I could do.
>>278195>>278196they are a species of Calliphoridae, a blow-fly (eats rotting food, meat, humans, etc). Most likely that one is a bronze bottle fly, Phaenicia caprina but don't quote me on that.
>>277584I cant see the whole caterpillar, but this is probably a Sphingidae caterpillar
>>278217Looks like the exotic creature known as "the housefly." congrats, anon, on this exquisite, rare find
>>279081housefly is Muscidae, this is some grass/flower fly but I dont know the family
>>277553more like: common everyfuckingwhere
>>279069You were way late only to repeat what was said above you. Don't any of you know how to read?
>>279125you really have the most narrow view of isects dont you?
>>279290he gave much more information than was already given.
found this guy in my zucchini this morning. he wanted nothing to do with my fingers when I wanted to move him and wasnt falling for the leaf I was holding.
>>279083I posted this about>>278217It's some sort of grass fly, but I can't identify that down to anything specific>>279319this is an immature Pentatomidae (stink bug)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatomidae