#assassin bugs

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Wheel Out the Wheel Bug

The wheel bug, also known as Arilus cristatus, is a member of the assassin bug family found throughout eastern North and Central America. They thrive in a variety of environments including grasslands, deciduous and tropical forests, and gardens; anywhere where flowers are abundant.

The wheel bug is so named for the distinctive, spiny wheel-shaped hump along its thorax and abdomen. The body is otherwise elongated and dark grey with white spotting. As an assassin bug, the species also sports an enlarged proboscis for deeding. This species is also noted for being one of the largest true bugs endemic to North America, at a whopping 3.8 cm (1.5 in) long.

As an assassin bug, A. cristatus is a voracious predator within its natural habitat. Individuals catch caterpillars, beetles, sawfly larvae, aphids, and stink bugs with their long forelimbs and then inject their target with a potent paralytic, dissolving its insides and slurping up the resulting soup. Due to their spiky bodies and painful bite, the wheel bug has few natural predators. However, eggs are often prey to parasitic wasps.

Wheel bugs begin mating in September and continues throughout the fall. After mating, the female lays anywhere from 40 to 200 eggs on a leaf, in a cluster resembling a cylindrical honeycomb. The eggs incubate over the winter and juveniles emerge the following spring. They mature throughout the summer and become full adults the following fall, where they mate and then die.

Conservation status: The wheel bug has not been evaluated by the IUCN, but populations are widely dispersed throughout its range and the species is generally ecologically stable. In many areas, it is one of the only predators of other invasive or pest insect species.

Photos

Rick Kelly

Seth Ausubel

Richard Orr

[ljsbugblog]

a Red Tiger Assassin Bug, common in the region but my first time seeing one.

this individual was slowly exploring one of our Jacaranda trees, searching for a meal. this last photo offers an excellent view of their sucking mouthparts, found in all true bugs but specialised in assassins for subdueing and consuming small insects as prey.

Red Tiger Assassin Bug (Havinthus rufovarius).

[isopogs]

[ID: 1: Two grey and black wheel bugs on leaves.

2: A grey and black wheel bug on a white-painted wall, holding a ladybug. /End ID]

NORTH AMERICAN WHEEL BUGS! I was graced with the presence of three separate specimens while I was walking around a nature area outside of my local natural history museum, and extra graced by finding one mid-meal! You can tell that these aren't adults because they don't have their "wheel" yet!

Location: Brazos, TX

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: NOVEMBER 2ND, 2024 | Image IDs: Three photos of a brown thread-legged bug on a window frame /End IDs.]

One may think this is a typical stick bug, but, as it turns out, this is actually a thread-legged bug, a type of assassin bug!

[arachnophanatic]

Assasssin bug nymph / family Reduviidae

[harleycrittercorner]

Small green beast

Pale Green Assassin Bug

[halffizzbin]

Assassin bugs / family Reduviidae; probably genus Zelus (adults on the left, nymphs on the right)

I promise you this isn’t an insect blog. I swear to you it’s not. ANYWAY this genus produces sticky resin to help trap prey and has been studied as a non-chemical method of pest control in agriculture, since they tend to hunt smaller plant-eating insects and do not damage the plants themselves. They have a scary stabby proboscis that curves around under their heads; you can see it pretty well on both nymph photos, and not at all in the adult photos because with those I was only focusing on the pretty colors (like a true naturalist would).

[phoronopsis]

If your girl has

bulbous eyes

piercing-sucking mouthparts (beak)

raptorial legs

cogwheel-like structure

that’s not your girl that’s wheel bug!

(photo from this article)

[theymightbebipeds]

P. barberi having a liquid dinner of ant My iNaturalist 📸: Nikon COOLPIX P1000

[transmascicada]

THE MAGNIFICENT WHEELBUG

[69bahaha]

[bedupolker]

Run your own race

[ljsbugblog]

a few weeks ago I posted a photo of an assassin bug nymph (Pristhesancus plagipennis), and now here's an adult traversing one of our sunflowers in search of a meal!

wasn't long before she came across one of the many species of caterpillar feeding on the leaves, and attempted to attack.

P. plagipennis are known to prey on a variety of insects, notably stinkbugs (Musgraveia sulciventris) and honey bees, the latter earning it the nickname of 'Bee-Killer Assassin Bug', which I personally find a bit dramatic.

the caterpillar won this encounter, adopting a defensive posture and thrashing its body whenever the assassin got too close. after a brief standoff with her piercing mouthparts unfolded, she walked away to search for easier prey instead.

No common name (Pristhesancus plagipennis).

[isopogs]

This funky friend is a leafhopper assassin bug NYMPH (Zelus renardii)! These fellas are native to North and Central America, and they use a sticky substance on their legs to catch prey!

This nymph will grow up to be an adult that looks like this:

(Photo by Sagehuz on iNaturalist, under a CC-BY-NC license)

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: APRIL 25TH, 2025 | Image IDs: Six photos of a green and brown pale green assassin bug on a relatively large, similarly green leaf /End IDs.]

Zelus luridus, Reduviidae!

[lepidxpterxphxbia]

@heshemikey

assassin bugs with stripes are so fucking silly to me 😭 like yeah your mouth is a superfast knife. but bro that is a circus animal