General insect study and related issues

Hello,

I’ve been trying to ID this little dude and I *think* it’s Steatoda
triangulosa but I’m not positive.
http://www.gkphotography.net/samples/7674spider2.jpg  Any idea where I can
find more detailed info on behavior, mating, nesting, diet, life expectancy,
etc.?

It was found on the porch in the southeast US (NC) a few weeks ago (summer).
Just had a bunch of hatchlings.

For bonus points, I’m also trying to ID a predator that ambled into the web
last night and began consuming the babies.  At first I thought the spider
killed it, but now the spider is gone.  I’m pretty sure it simply moved off
and was not eaten, as the spider was far larger than the intruder and there
was no carcass to be discovered this morning.
http://www.gkphotography.net/samples/7792a.jpg

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!  Oh yeah, as others have
asked, is there a better venue for me to ask these questions?  I was going
to contact my local university but I thought I’d get a more immediate
response here.  Thanks again!

-GK

What are the effects of rotating a beehive?

Some bees have set up shop in a Wellbrook ALA1530 loop antenna
that I have mounted in a camouflage bird-feeder with clear plastic
sides, so it’s sort of a visible beehive.

One of the things you do with loop antennas is rotate them to
null away interference of one sort or another.  It seems to me
that the bees are confused when I rotate it out of its usual
orientation, when I come back later to reset it.

Are bees strongly oriented to the hive/sun or hive/surroundings?
I’m not sure it kills off all their social life but it seems like
it might be doing that.
—
Ron Hardin
rhhar…@mindspring.com

On the internet, nobody knows you’re a jerk.

Hello,

First of all please excuse me , I do not have a science
background.

Back in the early ’70s when I was 6 or 7 years old I have a
fairly vivid memory
of seeing a very large spider at Matthiessen State Park in north
central Illinois.

The spider(actually I think there was two of them) was as big as
a man’s hand or
maybe even larger,( the legs were 5 or 6 inches long or so) with
a very small body
(maybe the size of a kidney bean or a little larger).
They looked like a really large "daddy long leg" (my best
description!).
 They were in a concrete drainage tile at the park.

Should I chalk this off to an overactive child’s imagination, or
does any spider in northern Illinois
even slightly match this description ?

Bill

How do you get rid of, or even slow down, spiders on the boat. Here on the
Gulf of Mexico coast,
the spiders are terrible and their poop is an industrial strength glue-like
substance which leaves an almost impossible to clean spot. Does anyone have
any suggestions for getting rid of the spiders or at least holding their
numbers down.
—
Les Stewart
Beaumont, TX

Hi there, I’m hoping that someone out there can help me identify the
strangest and quite possibly the coolest looking insect I’ve ever
seen…here’s a description.   It’s body was a fuzzy pale yellow like a moth
sort of a powdery/hairy texture  It had dark wings that it flapped very
quickly resembling a humming bird.  It was also roughly the same size as a
humming bird. I know it was an insect because I had a very close look at it
and it most definitely had antenna and a rolled up proboscis (tongue?) that
it dipped into the front yard flowers with.  It also had a fan shaped tail
like a shrimp….oddest thing I’ve seen in years.   Our neighbors have seen
and described the exact same creature.

Thanks in advance

–
Boogieman
Some people are so dense….light bends around them.

I found this bug on the outside of my house a few nights
ago. I’m in central Texas. I looked for it in my bug book,
but didn’t find it. I’d love to know what it is and if it
is as scary as it looks.

http://www.eckhardt.net/bug1.JPG

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~~~~~~~

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hi all.
tonight in my kitchen i had a terrifying encounter with a giant flying
bug. to give some idea of its size, when i saw it out of the corner of
my eye i thought it was one of those large brown moths, but then it
landed on the wall, it looked like a giant cockroach or waterbug. it was
easily two inches long, with big legs and antennae. nasty looking.

i’ve never heard of a flying cockroach before…what the heck was it?

i’ve lived in new york city for fifteen years and i’ve never seen its
likes. i understand palmetto bugs can fly, but i didn’t think we had
them here…

I found a couple dozen of these critters in my bathtub on Sunday morning.
I’ve never seen anything like them. They were black, and there were two
distinct types, one about 1/8 inch long, the other about 1/16 inch long.
Here’s a scan of each type, can anyone identify please?  I live in
Pennsylvania, USA.

http://www.pitt.edu/~armata/temp/bugs.htm

Thanks for any help!

Joe
armata-at-pitt.edu

They are commonly known as stick bugs or walking stick bugs, order Phasmatidae
and include a number of different species.  Pretty harmless
critters…….haven’t seen any since my daughter was in kindergarten. They are
very popular with kids!

pam – gardengal

- — -

rvp wrote:
> Hi,

> What are the odd looking insects shown in the attached photos?

> I took both pictures in my backyard last weekend. The brown insect was
> sitting on top of the BBQ propane tank, so you can guess at its dimensions:
> approx. 3 to 4 inches long.

> When I took the pictures, I was wondering if both were the same insect and
> it could change color, but the photo shows more details than I could see at
> the time and it’s now obvious that these are two distinct variety of the
> same type of insect.

> We’ve seen these a few times in the past, but they never move around (except
> of course if you move something close to them, where they sort of more
> aside, but never further than a few inches) … they seem to stay in one
> spot from morning til night but are gone the next morning, so I’m guessing
> they don’t like to travel during daylight.

> Any info would be of interest.

> Couriously yours,
> Richard
> r…@ottawa.com

>  [Image]

>  [Image]