WOW, look at this...what IS it??

[OldHag]

My friend found this in her newspaper. Its VERY tiny!! It seems to be covered in some kind of grey dust. Big back legs like a grasshopper.. Any ideas as to what this is? I tried to get as close as I could to it..but my macro isnt so good.

 

[Brian S]

It kinda looks like a leaf footed bug or some kind of assasin bug. I can't really tell from the foto.

Hag, I thought at first you were gonna show us a pic of one of your "pet" sowbugs.
Brian

 

[OldHag]

It kinda looks like a leaf footed bug or some kind of assasin bug. I can't really tell from the foto.

Hag, I thought at first you were gonna show us a pic of one of your "pet" sowbugs.
Brian

I actually DO have a pretty cool looking sowbug! It has red stripes on it!! Found it in the mountains this summer and brought it and anotherone home to further infest my millipede tank. If I can find it Ill take a picture of it.

That bug (on topic one) has dust or somesuch stuff on it. Thats why it looks all dusty and grey. Some actally rubbed off of its back leg.

 

[spider]

My guess is some type of Aphid.

 

[CIRE]

I see those around my house every so often...it kinds looks like they have grey dust/fuzz on them right?

 

[Jesse607]

I believe it is some kind of immature reduviid/assassin bug.

 

[Pheonixx]

I have no idea, but if it's an assain bug i would not be handiling it. My GF's dad got bit by an assain and was in the hospital for a week.

 

[Elizabeth]

I thought assassin bugs could deliver painful bites and that's about it, unless you are in a country (and the US doesn't count as one) where Chagas' disease is a concern. If your GF's dad landed in the hospital for a week, I don't think that really could have been the assassin bug's bite that did it. Maybe there's more to his ill health than you were told?

 

[oxbaker]

I get those things in my house occasionally as well. Always wondered what they were.

 

[OldHag]

Thanks for all the ideas. I finally let it go since I didnt know what to feed it.

The mystery contiues!!

Michelle

 

[Malhavoc's]

I found something that looked liek that but possibly a lil bit bigger but it had covered itself in pure white dust.. it looked like a moving iece of lint with an orange bug inside!

 

[Cooper]

I find those as well, I am also curious as to what they are. Mine were covered in the same stuff but I though it was dust, so I blew on it and lo and behold, it appeared that some of the leafy projections flew off. Mybe this is a form of camoflage?

 

[OldHag]

I touched the back leg very carefully and some of the "dust" came off as well. I think that they take the fuzz, dust, lint around them and camoflage themselves with it!! Ill keep reasearching, hopefully someone will figure this out.

Michelle

 

[Cooper]

The funny thing is, I have seen at least 5-6 of these guys this year, but never before in the six years in this house. Very odd, but cool as well. I think mine were a little bigger than yours, though.

 

[scavenger]

It's a species of tiny ambush bug that covers itself in insect frass and other crap as camouflage. I don't know it's name off hand.

 

[GQ.]

I think Brians is on the right track. Might it be a Masked Hunter, Reduvius personatus? Check out this link. http://enature.nationalgeographic.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesRECNUM.asp?recnum=IS0320

 

[Horrido]

GQ's pinned it. Masked hunter. Here are some other good links, including an early instar nymph that almost exactly matches the pics OH posted, as well as what the adults look like. I've become embarassed over cleaning my sofa, because they always flood out from underneath it like rats abandoning ship. lol


http://milwaukee.uwex.edu/urbanag/bugnet2/outdoors/outwoodys/assassin/assassin.html

http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/e608maskedhunter.html