tags: mystery insects, bugs, Image of the Day
The photographer writes: I was wondering if you might wish to post an unknown bug that showed here in Charlottesville.
Context: My Mom's also down here in C-ville. Outside her house, she has a hydrangea (sp?) bush. This bush was invaded by shoots of some unknown weed. The shoots were in turn mobbed by the yellow critters in the picture. Besides hardly looking bilateral, these things were also twitching alarmingly. Perhaps a reader can identify them?
Image: David Harmon. [bigger size]
My guess: Aphids.
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tags: mystery insects, bugs, Image of the Day
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Lotsa yellow aphids out there, for comparison here are some soybean aphids.
Here's my guess:
http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/aimg100.html
Indeed, both the New Zealand image and the Oleander Aphids look very much like what I saw, including the brown bristles (?) that confused me. (Though I have no idea what the infested weed was.) I hadn't realized there were yellow aphids, nor that they could be that large (these ranged up to 5mm or so). I'm guessing that the yellow color is a warn-off for birds, lest they settle in for a bug-ke-bab?
Incidentally, Mom's gardener later pulled out the weeds -- I was struck that none of the aphids moved to the hydrangea, but the comments on the Oleander Aphids suggest they (and presumably, similar species) are very particular about their host plants.
All the good guesses have already been taken, so I'll guess Xystropeltis meridionalis. This way if I happen to win, I won't have to share the prize.
And thanks to GrrlScientist and readers for the IDs!
In form the aphids resemble the ones we get on our oleander, but ours are bright orange. Great picture, I will try and get a picture of ours when they show up. Checking garden notes I see I last saw them in December three years ago when we had a rainy fall(at least two inches between Thanksgiving and New Years, that is a lot in Yuma AZ). There were quite a few but it did not bother me because I hate the oleander. It grows even if you do not water it, it is poisonous, and you get covered in the poisonous sap when you trim it (wear long sleeves).