blue white fly

[auroborus]

hey, i found a pic of a cool bug i see now and then, can anyone tell me what it is.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arwyn/1339592131/

 

[lukatsi]

Order Hemiptera, maybe a wooly aphid?

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

Order Hemiptera, maybe a wooly aphid?

This insect doesn't have hemelytron....it can't be Hemiptera, which is now a suborder, just so you know.

 

[lukatsi]

Hmm, I've seen it as an order everywhere (tolweb, fauna europaea, encyclopedia of life...), so I didn't know that classification. Would it be a suborder of Rhynchota?

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

Hmm, I've seen it as an order everywhere (tolweb, fauna europaea, encyclopedia of life...), so I didn't know that classification. Would it be a suborder of Rhynchota?

I forget what it's a suborder of nowadays. This change is probably recent though since most publications list it as an order. It'll probably be more accepted within the next 5 years or so. this is all sheer speculation i could be completely wrong. my professor has said though that he considers Hemiptera a suborder.

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

I may stand corrected here. That actually could be Hemiptera but I'd need to see the wings closer and more clearly.

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

Yea I think that might be Hemiptera. Sorry for any confusion I have caused. Where did you find that though? I've never seen anything like it.

 

[auroborus]

Ive seen them flying around now and then, though that picture is not my own, ive always wondered what they are. My TA confirmed that it was a wooly aphid, Pemphiginae. Wish I could find what they eat and were they usually live.

 

[lucanidae]

That is a woolly aphid, I usually find them in old growth forests in groups on low tree branches, especially in marshy/swampy areas.

Hemiptera is an order, it contains the following suborders:

Suborder Auchenorrhyncha - Free-living Hemipterans
Suborder Heteroptera - True Bugs
Suborder Sternorrhyncha - Plant-parasitic Hemipterans
Suborder Coleorrhyncha - Moss bugs

There is a lot of phylogenetic debate about the homology of each of the suborders, which is probably what your professor was addressing.

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

That is a woolly aphid, I usually find them in old growth forests in groups on low tree branches, especially in marshy/swampy areas.

Hemiptera is an order, it contains the following suborders:

Suborder Auchenorrhyncha - Free-living Hemipterans
Suborder Heteroptera - True Bugs
Suborder Sternorrhyncha - Plant-parasitic Hemipterans
Suborder Coleorrhyncha - Moss bugs

There is a lot of phylogenetic debate about the homology of each of the suborders, which is probably what your professor was addressing.

Yea this year he hasn't said anything about it being a suborder this year. A friend of mine who had him last year said he said that...maybe she just got confused.