Thursday 15 October 2015

species identification - What is this sand covered insect?


I have found in a wooden house, in the mountains of central Spain this very curious insect:


Strange Insect


I was wondering if that was its skin or whether it's decomposition or sand or saw-dust. That particular region of Spain does have stink-bugs ... but this one doesn't look like anything I've seen before. A google image search returns mostly arachnids ... but it seems to have only 6 legs.



Answer



It's a kind of assassin bug, specifically a Masked Hunter:


enter image description here enter image description here



The surface of an immature Masked Hunter is sticky and it attracts lint and dust which helps to camouflage this predator.




and



The name refers to the fact that its nymph camouflages itself with dust.



Though they feed on small insects, they will bite defensively, and when they do, it's fairly painful.


No comments:

Post a Comment

evolution - Are there any multicellular forms of life which exist without consuming other forms of life in some manner?

The title is the question. If additional specificity is needed I will add clarification here. Are there any multicellular forms of life whic...