#arilus

slurp!

this is a subadult Arilus cristatus, aka wheel bug! they're a hemipteran (a "true bug"), and so they don't go through complete metamorphosis. instead, they go through several stages of being a wingless nymph like this one before shedding their skin one last time and becoming Huge and Powerful.

hemipterans also all have this straw-like, sucking mouthpart, which you can see here! this lil dude caught one of my garden spiders and has slurped out all the good stuff, leaving it with a sad sack of spider skin :')

she's got important things to do and places to be! good luck lil dude, i hope you have a good day :)

Wheel Bug in Missouri (via USFWSmidwest)

Look but don’t touch! Wheel bugs (Arilus cristatus) are cool to see, but can inflict a painful bite if handled. Look for the prominent spiny ridge or "wheel" on the thorax to identify this species of assassin bug.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Wheelbug (Arilus carinatus), Mindo, Ecuador. January 2009. 

This species is the tropical relative to our North American wheelbug (A. cristatus), both of whom possess a large, wheel-shaped structure on their pronotum (”shoulders”). Wheel bugs are slow-moving predators that prefer to ambush other insects, notably soft-bodied prey like caterpillars, sawflies, and other larvae. Its mouthparts are modified like a heavy syringe, able to pierce exoskeleton and siphon fluids from its prey.The articulation in its head is somewhat flexible, allowing the head to swivel around and try to bite things from behind (in case you try to pick it up, for example...). 

by Vanessa Verdecia

The wheel bug (Arilus cristatus) is common in the United States and can be found here in Pennsylvania during the summer. It is recognized by the crested “wheel” as seen in the lateral image of this Carnegie specimen, and the beak can be seen coming out of the front of the elongated head and angled back towards the body in the close-up image. Wheel bugs can be found during the day, and one should be careful not to handle them, as a bite from this species is very painful. It is reported as causing intense pain followed by numbness, but their toxins do not cause serious health problems.

Wheel bugs, however, are very important predators and should be left undisturbed. They play a valuable role as forest predators, feeding on other insects that would otherwise defoliate trees or cause other destruction.

The wheel bug is classified in the family Reduviidae, which is one of the predatory families in the order Hemiptera (the True Bugs).

arilus / assassin bug / wheelbug!

found this guy crawling up on my shirt today & gently dissuaded him.