Bug Line Up

September 15, 2015 6:58 AM

Can anyone identify this bug (imgur link, two photos, with tweezers for scale)? Found in a home in suburban Chicago, killed by this handsome fellow.
posted by crush-onastick to Science & Nature (13 answers total)

This is a tough one, looks like maybe something from the damsel bug family?
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 8:26 AM on September 15, 2015

I think it's an assassin bug.
posted by foxjacket at 8:35 AM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

If I saw it, I'd call it a deer fly, although a quick GIS shows mostly clear-tipped wings -but that's not a huge variation, so it could be a species difference.

Definitely not an assassin bug; it's Diptera, not Hemiptera.
posted by IAmBroom at 8:36 AM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

A Vibernum Borer Moth?
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:50 AM on September 15, 2015

A med fly?
posted by Oyéah at 9:37 AM on September 15, 2015

I'd suggest some species of Robber Fly.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 10:13 AM on September 15, 2015

I think it's a western conifer seed bug. They're commonly found inside houses. This page has some good pictures. Look particularly at the one in the middle with the wings open. You can compare them to yours and see how the color pattern matches nicely.
posted by Redstart at 11:04 AM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm definitely on team hemiptera with this one, is there any chance of getting a clearer picture of it from the back?

On preview I bet Redstart has it
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:07 AM on September 15, 2015

Yep. That is some type of true bug or Hemiptera. Most use their piercing mouth parts to eat plants, but some, like assassin bugs, eat other insects. Kissing bugs are Hemiptera but I don't think that's what you've got there. Most likely Redstar is correct.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 1:17 PM on September 15, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions, folks. I have no way of being definitive about a best answer, but I'll go with the emerging consensus of "western conifer seed bug".
posted by crush-onastick at 7:16 AM on September 16, 2015

The color pattern isn't a big deal, evolultionarily. There's a complete lack of Hemiptera-type wings, and the presence of very Diptera-type wings. Wing structures are very heavily typed within Orders of Insecta (and Aves and Mammalia's Chiroptera, for that matter).

But you can go with " killdeer bird", if you like. They have color patterns like this as well.
posted by IAmBroom at 9:41 AM on September 17, 2015

The wings in Redstart's link look like a perfect match to me, and I am just not able to reconcile that abdomen and proboscis with diptheria. I mean look at the mouth and body on a deer fly
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:45 AM on September 17, 2015

Yeah, there are a lot of things that match in those pictures besides the color pattern of the wings. It was the only thing I specifically mentioned, but it wasn't the only thing I was looking at.
posted by Redstart at 9:53 AM on September 17, 2015