Arilus cristatus

Hahaa how cool is that little dude

Found two in my backyard, one died two and a half months ago, this one's been hanging around with me as an adult for 7 months, yet, still kicking strong

looks like some alien version of a tank lol nice pic

@kellysaxez Haha, I think of them as robot dinosaur bugs. They have a prehistoric, yet mechanical look to them with that cog on their pronotum.

@Ripa

I went camping in Maryland at a resort called Ramblewood. I think I must have camped on a nest or something because my tent, my grill, my ice chest, and even the inside of an unwrapped candy bar had been infiltrated by assassin bugs. Granted they were prettier than yours, blue and green with a red "stinger", but scared the poop out of me. Especially the one in my chocolate bar. They were EVERYWHERE. Checked everything, including the candy bar, lol, thank God, before I put my hand there lest I startle one and get a zinger. Had a friend who got stung by one, her arm was sore for almost 2 months afterwards. Don't know what the secret is to handling them, maybe just don't startle them, but I'll leave that to you, brave soul, to decipher.

@kellysaxez These native wheel bugs are the reason I now have four of the giant African Platymeris "Mombo" assassin bugs. Such interesting insects! I'd be less inclined to handle those monsters, though, considering they're faster, more aggressive, and have more potent venom. Wheel bugs are relatively docile, gentle giants, and will stridulate by rubbing their pronotum against their abdomen when picked up as if to seem intimidating. They also make a big stink using a bifurcated set of orange anal stink glands that are exposed when disturbed. The coolest thing about them is that they're a rare case of a native incorporating an invasive (the Japanese scarab beetle) into their conventional diet. Keeping them in captivity gives you the scifi vibe when they eat- they inject their prey with digestive enzymes like spiders do, but don't mash up the body, so they essentially liquefy the insides and slurp them up, leaving an empty husk of the cricket or roach that's fed to them that day. Very beneficial bugs and a treat to keep in captivity

They actually look like the common stink bug, too, at least I find them to. It's great when we can keep and care for something that is not always hidden in a burrow or under a rock. lol

Those are reputed to have a really painful bite. A really painful stab stab would probably be more accurate, I guess, I've never been tagged by one, but a few summers ago, my neighbour brought a dead one to me to see if I knew what it was. He told me it had nailed him on the hand as he was gathering green beans. He said it hurt big time with the pain shooting up to his shoulder.
I've read that the wound created can become necrotic, but I don't know if that is a something inherent to the species or just a side effect from what amounts to a puncture wound getting infected. My neighbour suffered no such effect, though.

I think it's it's the latter. I've been nailed by various other inverts that have allegedly been claimed to cause necrosis and only experienced the ailments of the venom, not any residual bacterial attacks. There's no doubt in my mind that these critters can pack a punch, but stacked up to any Platymeris species and they seem like puppy dogs haha