Hi! and welcome back once again to my bizarre wildlife blog!  I am really excited to write this next one, because this week’s theme is weird bugs from around the world!  These may be the strangest looking bugs you have ever seen!  Enough with the suspense… here they come….

The first bug is….

Woah, what is that???  This is Pyrops candelaria, or the Long-Snout Lanternfly.  This bug is from Indonesia, and it is just really weird looking!  Interestingly enough, it was given its name because it was first believed that the snout could give off light! While this turned out to be untrue, the name stuck.  If you think that the Laternfly looks cool enough here, it brings it to a whole next level once it opens its wings!  The under wings are a very bright yellow, to make this one visible bug!  Now, the snout isn’t just for looks, either.  This bug feeds on plant sap, and the proboscis is used to pierce tree bark to get to its food.  It’d be nice to see a bug like this around campus!

Get ready, this next one is really scary!

Up next is Damon variegatus, the giant tail-less whip scorpion:

This is honestly one of the scariest looking bugs ever.  Just posting this picture is giving me the creeps.  This bug is from Central and Southern Africa, and is pretty large, around 9 inches long.  This is actually an ancient species, almost unchanged for over 300 million years old!  Surprisingly, this arachnid walks on three pairs of legs, as the fourth pair has evolved into sensory organs that feel around the environment.  When they sense prey with their feelers, they snap it up quickly with its front pedipalps (claws).  Now that I have thoroughly freaked you out… the Damon variegatus is actually harmless to people! They are not venomous, and in fact are quite skittish and timid. Perhaps I should’ve started with that fact… oh well!

On to the next bug, Acharia stimulea, or the saddleback caterpillar:

Pretty cute, right?  This is a little cool-looking caterpillar that is native to North America.  It is pretty easy to see why it is called the saddleback caterpillar; since the red spot on its back resembles a saddle.  Now, as the last bug was scary but harmless, the saddleback is the opposite. It looks really cute, but it is not a bug to be messed with!  It has horns on either end, and it has hair covering a good part of it.  These hairs secrete an irritating venom, and contact with these hairs can cause rash, irritation, and nausea in humans.  It eventually morphs into a brown moth, which is much less interesting than the caterpillar, I would say!

Finally, the last bug for this week is Cerogenes auricoma, and it has no common name!

I was debating on whether or not to post this bug.  I looked and looked for more information on them, but there is surprisingly very little at all on them, at east I could find.  They are native to Mexico and South America, and they are related to the cicada.  These bugs are really fluffy, and that fluffy stuff is actually the bug’s defense mechanism – waxy protrusions that help defend against predators!  I am not quite sure how it protects them, but the wax is created in “wax-producing plates” on the insect’s back.  This is all I have!

I hope you enjoyed these bugs; I really enjoyed finding them online!  If you know anything about this last bug, let me know, and also I would love to know which bug you found most interesting!

Thanks,

Sam