# ID needed. Odd, nasty blood sucking flying insect...



## billopelma (Aug 26, 2011)

A friend's family has been getting bit by this bug (in Massachusetts), happens in the house at night while sleeping. It's relatively painful enough to wake you up from a sound sleep and leaves an obvious red, swollen, itchy welt.
He finally managed to smack one and recover the body, it's a bit beat up but mostly all there, body measures about 3/8". I looked on bug guide and also did some google searching but came up with nothing....














Bill


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## zonbonzovi (Aug 26, 2011)

Looks like it has elytra & a rostrum(?)  Heteropteran(as if that narrowed it down)?  Has the texture of a weevil.  Weird.  Good luck.  Sleep with armor.


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## The Snark (Aug 26, 2011)

Coleoptera. I seem to recall a similar beetle in Indiana. Looks quite similar to the Anthonomus grandis. (Boll Weevil) Waiting for an expert to nail this guy down.


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## Scythemantis (Aug 26, 2011)

I can't tell if you're joking or not since that's a weevil, a widely known and harmless plant eater with no capacity to bite that should have been exceptionally easy to find on bugguide. It's at least obvious that it's a beetle, and there are no known bloodsucking beetles. If there are I'd love to know about them because I love learning about new parasites.

Poor innocent little thing got lost in someone's house and blamed for something it could never possibly do.


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## billopelma (Aug 26, 2011)

Thanks Guy's,

Shows how much I know about bugs.
Now that you have me thinking weevil it seems obvious...



> Poor innocent little thing got lost in someone's house and blamed for something it could never possibly do.


No joke but I'm just relaying second hand info so I can't attest to the particulars. He woke up to being bit and swatted something, this was there when the lights came on. I guess it was in the wrong place at the wrong time...




> ...should have been exceptionally easy to find on bugguide.


Not when you're looking only specifically for something blood sucking...


Bill


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## catfishrod69 (Aug 26, 2011)

i truly dont think thats a weevil...its a hummingbird moth, and drinks nectar

---------- Post added 08-26-2011 at 06:17 PM ----------

ok im wrong....totally crazy...i have hummingbird moths around here, although never seen one dead, i thought thats what it was...why does that weevil look so much like a moth? sorry for my confusion..


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## tarantulaballz3 (Aug 26, 2011)

billopelma said:


> A friend's family has been getting bit by this bug (in Massachusetts), happens in the house at night while sleeping. It's relatively painful enough to wake you up from a sound sleep and leaves an obvious red, swollen, itchy welt.
> He finally managed to smack one and recover the body, it's a bit beat up but mostly all there, body measures about 3/8". I looked on bug guide and also did some google searching but came up with nothing....
> 
> 
> ...


http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/images/brown-beetle-nut-or-acorn-weevil-21298041.jpg

I think i found it


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## Galapoheros (Aug 26, 2011)

It wouldn't surprise me that, if it were really hungry, it might try to nibble on a person with its mouth parts hoping you were an acorn or something like it.  When I was a kid I had a cicada emerge and kept it.  Not realizing it would get hungry or knowing exactly what it ate when I was around 10, I put it on my finger and it tried to stick me with it's beak/mouth parts, it actually hurt a little.


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## The Snark (Aug 27, 2011)

I think I have the answer. Either they have beetles that have been hanging out in a rather strange crowd or you might want to make a discreet check as to what family your friends belong in. Messychewsits has a Boston which we all know is heavily populated with two legged vegetables.


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## Galapoheros (Aug 27, 2011)

It didn't take me long to find another story, http://bugguide.net/node/view/48726  I have dealt with this myself when I was a kid handling them for a long time, but with the larger weevils, but didn't let them get too far, kind of freaked me out.  It took me a while to remember but I do remember it now.  It's only desperation for food imo, maybe sensing moisture.


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## Travis K (Aug 27, 2011)

Wow, this has been a very interesting thread!


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## Galapoheros (Aug 27, 2011)

Yeah Travis, I remember it now, a long time ago, I had one on my finger, I had been playing with it for a long time, so it was relaxed and crawling around.  Then it slowly grabbed tight to my finger, I felt a lot of pressure coming from this small beetle.  I couldn't figure out what was going on.  Then, "HEEYYYYY! Get off me!"


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## Bugs In Cyberspace (Aug 27, 2011)

Definitely interesting and reminds me of an _encounter_ I had a few years back. I was holding a _Dynastes granti_ rhino beetle when a disproportionately long, pointy, sharp and sclerotized appendage suddenly came out of the backside, stabbing my finger. Females don't appear to have ovipositors that I've ever seen. However that isn't relevant since this individual was male! Whatever it started, it didn't finish.

I never believed that ladybugs bit until one landed on me and sunk its mandibles into my neck.

And now, weevils?

_When Beetles Attack!_


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## The Snark (Aug 27, 2011)

While at first this seems strange, shift on over to Heteroptera and you have dozens of species of beetles that 'bite'.


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## billopelma (Aug 27, 2011)

I spoke to the recipient of the bite again and he said it was still attached to him by the proboscis and had to be pulled off. He can't however confirm that the bites on his kids are from the same thing...


Bill


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## zonbonzovi (Aug 27, 2011)

This could be a big positive for the under appreciated insects.  Tarantulas and scorpions have the advantage of big Hollywood production and menacing closeups.  Maybe all that bumbling, inherent cuteness works against them.  A little more bloodletting & public outcry = more species available in the classifieds.  Anybody want to make a film about voracious, man-eating beetles that attack juice bar loving yuppies when their natural habitat and food sources have been all but destroyed?

P.S. anyone know where I can get life-like corpse parts for a beetle enclosure;open cavity wounds, sawn off limbs Fangoria style, LOL.


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## The Snark (Aug 27, 2011)

billopelma said:


> I spoke to the recipient of the bite again and he said it was still attached to him by the proboscis and had to be pulled off. He can't however confirm that the bites on his kids are from the same thing...
> 
> 
> Bill


 Have your friend read up on Assassin bugs and their friends. Also, beetles aren't gifted with a high quality guidance systems and easily fall prey to sticky traps. Try to catch a few and pack them off to a qualified entomologist.


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## The Snark (Aug 27, 2011)

*Blood sucking herbivores*

A friend's father, one of those odd creatures that accumulates a series of letters after it's name, has written a number of papers on the subject of 'Evolving evolution'. He uses the classifications of herbivores, omnivores and carnivores as examples that evolution is not simply a chain of events but a constant and continual state of flux. As example, a quote from him in his introductory student address in his biology class:

"Eliminate all evolution up to any given moment in time. From that moment on, evolvement would start anew, diversify, and create a biosphere in which organisms interact with their environment and inevitably begin entirely new chains of events. Hitherto unknown organisms would emerge almost instantly, alter the environment they interact with, and form the basis for continual evolution. Unlike the kingdoms, food source specific references are only indicators as animals can and will make transitions between them in a constant and continual trial and error process. The laws, dictum's, of evolution, aren't per se, only a reference guide. Expect the unexpected as that is the true natural order of organic life. Animalia that is unable to make a transition in their food sources are almost always the first to die off. Evolution demands flexibility as that is it's basis and nature."

PS Never _ever_ mention creationism in that mans presence. As the emperor said "... my young Jedi, you will not survive"


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## Entomancer (Aug 27, 2011)

Hahaha!

Maybe the weevil has spent too much time watching Twilight and True Blood.


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## Kruggar (Aug 28, 2011)

Weevils are insanely strong, and armoured. I had a little weevil on my shirt one time and went to pluck it off, I swear that it was like trying to lift a _5 pound weight_. It is also extremely hard to squish one between your fingers, they are hard little beggars. It's also hard to rip a leg off, I mean _work_ for a _person_. 

My proposal is, a weevil that is under attack is best to either play dead and drop to the ground, or in the event of being unable to (on the ground already, or pinned), latch on and rely on the armour, and joint strength (I mean look at the size of those tarsals and the tarsal claws). 

Weevils are often found in houses, and seem to love the folds in sheets for some reason, if you shifted in your sleep and pinned one, they'd be sure to latch on. And if they can anchor themselves better with mandibles, why wouldn't they bite too? I think it's a bit extreme to say that a weevil would suddenly have a taste for blood, or that an acorn weevils have always had a taste for blood. Although, their bite may have gone under appreciated.

Just a thought.


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