Questions tagged [entomology]
The scientific study of Insects. If the question is about some other group of arthropod use 'arthropod' tag.
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What is this bug living on the plaster in my home?
It's a small larva looking creature that pops out of a volcanoe-esque hole in the bathroom. SE United States.
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Beetle (?) on Acacia (Senegalia) greggii?
I was working on my botany skills and took a photo of Acacia (Senegalia) greggii. When I reviewed the photos, I saw a beetle (I think it's a bettle) that I had not noticed in the field. I'd say its ...
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Will carpenter bee larvae die if trapped or find a way to bore out?
I had a carpenter bee problem last year, beginning with the awful sounds the larvae make! The exterminators couldn’t find the bore holes (they were/are inside a gap between top of the foundation and ...
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Can you please identify this mosquito-like insect?
I've seen these insects before (here in Cambridge, UK) and thought that they were probably mosquitoes, but they don't make the annoying noise that mosquitoes do (they fly similarly, but silently):
I ...
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Probably a moth larvae but better to confirm [duplicate]
What I know,
It reacts to light
the red seems to be blood but can't say for sure
1 to 10 mm
it has a casing of something soft fabric possibly
it grabs to walls
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What is this insect? 6 legs and red body
I'm in Brazil, southeast region, urban area. I've found these 6 legged insects with red bodies and black heads. They have long antennae (about as long as their limbs) and they walk around like ants, ...
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Is this also a carpenter ant?
I live in Dayton, Ohio. I've found large-ish ants in my kitchen, and I'm wondering if they're carpenter ants.
I realize there's been a few questions about carpenter ant identification, but in my ...
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What is this red little cocoon like creature here?
I found this bug here outdoor on the wall of my backyard. I’m in California.
Red and looks like a cocoon, notice some tiny dots on its back. About 1cm.
Does anyone know what kind of insect is this? ...
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Identify black insect on Granadilla plant in South Africa
Planted a granadilla tree 3 weeks ago and these guys appeared on the new growth.
Never seen them before.
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Identify a large wasp (?) from southern Poland
This insect has appeared "out of nowhere" in one of my rooms. Can you help me identify it?
Details:
location: Katowice, Upper Silesia, southern Poland, eastern Europe (46.42 N, 17.78 E),
...
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Identifying an insect in Cambridge UK
I have come across an insect in Cambridge UK that I could not identify.
I tried to find this in various catalogues of local insects without success. The insect was about 1-2cm in length and didn't ...
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Bumblebee (?) identification
These bumblebees live on my balcony, in ventilation holes in doors and windows. I'm trying to find the exact name of the species, but I can't find any that look exactly like this. Their top segment is ...
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Please identify this syrphid (hoverfly)
Last summer I took these pictures of a member of the Syrphidae on my balcony (Switzerland, Geneva area, Alt. ~380m, June 2020 @19:14)
Pictures:
I hesitate between three species but it could also be ...
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Arthropod identification request (a spider with no legs?)
My mother sent me a picture of a creature she encountered and couldn't identify. It looks kind of a like a spider - a mostly black body, about 1cm in size, with white specks - except without any ...
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What is this little (3mm) spotted insect in Northern Italy? [duplicate]
Every now and then I find one or two of these tiny bugs in my kitchen. They are about 3-4 mm long and seem to be very static on hard surfaces (furniture or walls). They rarely, if ever, more.
The one ...
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Is this flying bug swarm termites? Found in New York city, approx 7mm
Just saw a giant swarm of these fly out in between pavers and a door sill from a small crack in the ground here in New York City. There seemed to be hundreds of them swarming out very quickly. They ...
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Does anyone know what insect species this is?
The insect has an approximate length of 2.5 cm and It was found in Panama, Central America.
It was living hidden between the leaves of a papaya tree (Carica papaya).
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How did so many types of larvae become known as worms?
How did it come to be that so many types of creatures typically known as worms are actually insect larvae? Silkworms are not actually worms at all, but larvae of a type of moth. Another example being ...
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What made this, is it an egg sac?
Found this "egg ball" on a gate near a greenbelt north of Seattle, WA. From other posts here, it looks similar to snail eggs, but they do not have the webbing. Two days later I went back out ...
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Is insect farming more efficient than shrimp farming? [closed]
Insect farming is sometimes advertised as the way to feed the growing global population with animal protein in a way that is more efficient (in terms of protein yielded/feed consumed) than growing ...
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Trying to identify a beetle seen in Ontario, Canada...and its babies, or parasites?
I'm trying to identify a beetle I took video of in July (around 2010) in the Muskoka region of Ontario, Canada. Attached below is a still frame.
I've done some googling and was thinking this was a ...
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Can you recognize this larvae that came from a human nose? (probable nasal myiasis?
Those larvae came at least four different times from the nose (inside - from the mucosal) of a 60 year old man from a tropical area in South America. He lives and works in a city with a tropical ...
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Bug identification request
Can anyone please offer a suggestion of what the insect below is? It is about 3mm in length, and I saw it on my kitchen counter. I live in an apartment, 9th floor of a highrise. It is January 5 (...
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What type of insect is it?
I've found this insect in my apartment and I don't know it could be bed bug or not. Could it be hazardous and what are the ways for getting rid of it?
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Why don't bees sting hornets for defense?
Why don't honeybees sting hornets for defense when their hive is attacked? It seems like a good weapon against bigger animals - why not against hornets?
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What type of bug is this?
Found two larva/eggs in a suitcase. The egg/larva were around same size or maybe little bigger than a grain of rice. When I put them on counter top to better examine, one hatched and a SINGLE insect ...
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Beautiful blue enigmatic insect (mantid?) in Kenya
This beautiful insect was found in Kenya today - and we don’t know what it is. We think it may be a mantid of some sort?!
Nairobi kenya, croton trees, cape chestnuts, bougainvilliea, there is quite a ...
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Spontaneous generation of fruit flies
I live in the South of England. It is currently winter.
Whenever I buy bananas, even one, if I leave the discarded banana peel in my kitchen, within hours or even minutes, there is a cloud of little ...
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Do you know what this black spider-like insect is?
I have encountered these insects before, but I always assumed them to be spiders even though I always noticed they have 6 legs, as an exception. But slowly with time I ended up observing them more. ...
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Unknown larvae in grey cocoon
Location: Germany
While cleaning the windows today, I realized some dirt falling off the top of the window frame. By looking further, it seemed to be some kind of cocoon. (The first picture is very ...
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Why did ants and meliponine bees lose their sting? What's the evolutionary advantage in it? [closed]
We know Aculeata is the Hymenoptera’s lineage where the ovipositor evolved into a venomous sting. However, most ants have lost this sting, as well as meliponine and some other bees.
Kerr & Lello (...
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Is this a bed bug? Found this on the pillow as I was putting my daughter to sleep [duplicate]
My husband found this small (~4mm long) insect on a pillow while putting my daughter to sleep in our New Jersey (USA) suburb home.
We checked our daughter's and our own mattress as well as the rug, ...
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Do the posterior legs of mosquito plays the role of antenna?
I have had this question for years and this stems from the observation that when I bring my hand close to a mosquito lying on some surface (e.g : wall) I see its posterior legs - which are in a ...
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Help identifying a bug which looks like a housefly and mosquito hybrid
I'm from Kochi, India (southern part of India). I found this bug inside my house , it was about a centimeter long . But how can such an hybrid be possible. (It was raining before I found it).
1: https:...
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What species is this golden fly?
Last summer I was visited by this unusual golden fly, whose kind I have never seen before. It was impossible to scare away so I could take relatively good pictures.
The pictures on this hobbyist page ...
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Indian Spider Identification
Today I saw this curious colorful spider on its web near a sapota tree in my garden.
I have never seen any spider like this,its around 2cm or a little less.
The most curious part is this part of its ...
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What makes boric acid so toxic to roaches and not so much to any other insect?
When I look up boric acid on the net there are various ads for it to kill roaches but no explanation of why it is effective on roaches. I am in East TX , roach central. When my house was built I put ...
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Which ant/wasp species is that?
Anybody knows which species (or genus, family...) of ant/wasp is that?
It's from Brazilian Amazon (Upper Negro River, Amazonas state). About 2-3 cm long (about one inch), maybe. It was walking on the ...
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Caterpillar identification - found on a coffee plant inside a house
Today, I've found a twig-like caterpillar hanging down from my homegrown coffee plant (which explained why some of the plant's leaves appear to be eaten away). What specie is this insect? It was about ...
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Found lots of these insects on my study desk today. What are these? [duplicate]
I came home today, switched on the lights and saw many of these running around my study desk. Any help in identifying these little insects? The picture is zoomed in so it doesn't really do justice to ...
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What is the name of this strange white caterpillar?
My friend found this caterpillar in south-central Tennessee in August. No identification guides or databases I've searched had a similar picture. Does anyone know the name of this species?
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Do bees from different continents have different "taste"?
This question was already asked by me at Gardening Stack Exchange, but I was advised to ask it here instead. I see there is already a closely related question: Do animals have different taste ...
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Why do Oak Processionary caterpillars form processions?
Firstly ,I don't live in Europe. I live in South India, and my garden has a Night Flowering Jasmine tree.
And these trees are quite popular, but notorious for their caterpillars. In our region ,there ...
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What changes do ants make to the soil they use for building ant hills
I live in South India ,and among the many species of ants in and around our house, some of them except the weaver ants build the typical small ant hills in the garden.
I have examined the coarse sand ...
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Can ants distinguish individual ants in the colony?
I am aware that ants have the ability to distinguish which female is the queen and which ones aren't. However, can ants also uniquely distinguish other individual ants in the colony? Is the ...
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What is this insect? Possible assassin bug? or kissing bug?
I saw this bug (around 2 cm) in the front of the balcony door inside the room.
I googled and found two same insects- Assassin bug and Kissing bug. Could they hide their eggs inside the room? Should I ...
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Can anyone identify this chrysalis?
What kind of chrysalis or pupa is this? It’s about an inch and 3/4 long and is hanging off the brick siding of a house in Piedmont North Carolina. It wiggles when it is touched. It has been hanging ...
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Identify this extremely tiny white bug please! [duplicate]
I have noticed these extremely small, hard to notice with naked eye bug for about 3 nights now. Twice on my body in the kitchen and once on my thumb in my living room. I managed to catch one last ...
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Identification - hornet
It has around 3cm. Does it look like a European or Asian Hornet?
The place where I found it is Central Europe/Romania but, after the wikipedia picture for Asian Hornet's head .. it looks exactly the ...
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What is the species of this strange insect?
I first saw this photo long time ago, and I still can't identify the species of this insect:
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