Please help me identify these insects I found on my house.

October 14, 2005 12:32 PM

My wife was doing some yard work and found these freaky, ant-like insects.. What are they?

.. these ant-like (they could be ants) bugs move as a group.. and they only seem to move if you get near them..and they don't move far either..

Here are some pictures:

http://cowmix.com/AskMeFi/FreakBugz/

posted by cowmix to science & nature (13 comments total)

Oh yeah.. these insects live in Phoenix, Arizona.. If that helps..
posted by cowmix at 12:37 PM on October 14, 2005

If you don't get a good answer, try whatsthatbug.com.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:40 PM on October 14, 2005

If you find out there, update this thread. I'm morbidly curious.
posted by xmutex at 12:50 PM on October 14, 2005

How big are they? They look like velvet ants but way too small.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:56 PM on October 14, 2005

I'm thinking some form of soldier ants: that linking behavior is some sort of defensive manouver.
posted by baggers at 12:56 PM on October 14, 2005

How big are they? They look like velvet ants but way too small.

They are pretty small.. Like.. smaller than a lady bug.. that is for sure.
posted by cowmix at 1:01 PM on October 14, 2005

They look like newly hatched assassin bugs, maybe of the wheel bug variety (scroll down about halfway for a very similar picture). More: [1] [2] [3].
posted by monju_bosatsu at 2:03 PM on October 14, 2005

I'd put my money on the assassin bugs, particularly as those stick like things in your photograph look like the rows of egg cases in monju_bosatu's [2] link.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:11 PM on October 14, 2005

The first thing I thought when I saw your pictures was also "Hey, those look like newly hatched assassin bugs." (They live in North Carolina too, and I've seen them hatch before, though I think ours are of a different species.) Of course, it's harder to identify tiny, newly hatched bugs than the adult specimen, but I think there's a good chance monju_bosotu's on the right track.
posted by musicinmybrain at 3:55 PM on October 14, 2005

Those are definitely some kind of heteropteran ("true bug," some folks or field guides will say "Hemipteran") nymph. All of the pictures that monju_bosatsu links to are adults, so I would use skepticism comparing yours to those. The will almost certainly change color as they mature, and may well change shape. In the Sierra Nevadas I frequently see a mirid (another heteropteran family, the assasins are mostly reduviids) that is a spot-on ant mimic for its first few instars, becoming less ant-like as it matures, and is not ant-like at all as an adult.
posted by Eothele at 4:51 PM on October 14, 2005

Thanks everyone.. I think 'assassin bugs' is the answer!
posted by cowmix at 8:05 PM on October 14, 2005

All of the pictures that monju_bosatsu links to are adults...

Scroll down.
posted by musicinmybrain at 7:05 AM on October 15, 2005

Scroll down.

Indeed, thanks/sorry. (I still think it's incautious to say that cowmix has assasins as opposed to another true bug.)
posted by Eothele at 8:51 AM on October 15, 2005