Molting Psyttala horrida

[ItalianTermiteMan]

Just quickly sharing with you a rather old pic of a young nymph of P. horrida, the horrid (but actually beautiful) assassin bug, mid-molting; as now they've beginning to become adults. Too bad their stunning post-molt coloration quickly goes away as their exoskeleton sclerotize!

 

[Wolfram1]

nice pic

 

[paumotu]

I love it. Molting assassins, from some reason the color turns my mind to Hawaiian Punch. They look.. delicious.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

I love it. Molting assassins, from some reason the color turns my mind to Hawaiian Punch. They look.. delicious. View attachment 456154

Hahahaha, I swear the first thing I pictured when I opened this thread were jalapeno slices, & an array of small bowls with an assortment of dipping sauces, LoLoL

 

[Tentacle Toast]

I know nothing about these things...how big are they actually? And what do you feed them? I'm assuming an "assassin" has a nasty bite, yes?

 

[ItalianTermiteMan]

I know nothing about these things...how big are they actually? And what do you feed them? I'm assuming an "assassin" has a nasty bite, yes?

Psyttala (often mispelled as Psytalla) contain the largest species of assassin bugs (family Reduviidae) in the world, i've sometimes seen P. horrida (45-50 mm) pointed out as the largest of them all but not on scientific publications so i'm not sure about that. Regarding diet, they feed on a wide variety of insects, personally i use red runner roaches as the base food item and sometimes provide waxworms aswell. The bite is reported to be painful (and they are able to squirt venom on a distance), but they are not aggressive towards people, only towards potential prey.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

Psyttala (often mispelled as Psytalla) contain the largest species of assassin bugs (family Reduviidae) in the world, i've sometimes seen P. horrida (45-50 mm) pointed out as the largest of them all but not on scientific publications so i'm not sure about that. Regarding diet, they feed on a wide variety of insects, personally i use red runner roaches as the base food item and sometimes provide waxworms aswell. The bite is reported to be painful (and they are able to squirt venom on a distance), but they are not aggressive towards people, only towards potential prey.

LoL, that's wild man, thanks. I always love seeing what people get into on these boards... always fascinating.