My brother has a lot of these on his oak trees (white oak, perhaps?) and they have bright red abdomens. Bright red on the tips of the antennae as well.
The egg clusters are all in honeycomb shapes - mostly black, but they have specks of gold on the top.
It looks like most of them are hatched and scattered by now, but I did find this one today. What are they and are they good or bad for landscape and vegetable garden?
This appears to be a nymph of an assassin bug (Hemiptera/Heteroptera: Reduviidae) called a wheel bug (Arilus cristatus) on an old egg mass - see http://tinyurl.com/o6opp8 for an image. Generally considered beneficial because they feed on many other insects, they can deliver a very painful bite if mishandled. See http://tinyurl.com/ncvacs for much more information on these fascinating insects.
Beneficials - excellent. I can't wait to see the adults around this summer!
All grown up. Or mostly grown up, looks like.
Just saw this guy (or gal) yesterday and wanted to update the thread. It was on my yellow squash plant.
That's still a nymph. Last year I raised 3 wheel bugs, I'm fascinated by them for some reason, and they molted 5 times, that's what they look like after the 3rd molt. Here's the link to an adult.
That's still a nymph. Last year I raised 3 wheel bugs, I'm fascinated by them for some reason, and they molted 5 times, that's what they look like after the 3rd molt. Here's the link to an adult.
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/trees/wheel_bug.htm
Here's more pics and info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_Bug
Very interesting, thank you! I wondered where the wheel was. This one looks different from the one I saw a few weeks ago, so the information on those sites explains why.
So you can hear them chirp? How do you raise them?
