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| Spotted lounging on our compost tumbler |
Are you interested in bugs? I spotted one of these on Monday morning, a Leptoglossus oppositus, or leaf-footed bug – at least according to Siri Knowledge, after it (or she?) performed the photo-search I requested on my iPhone (aka my camera).
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| Image from Siri Knowledge, with link to Wikipedia |
Leptoglossus oppositus a species of leaf-footed bug (family Coreidae) found in North America (also sighted at Northern Nigeria in 2022 by Muhammad U. Jawa). It resembles Leptoglossus fulvicornis but can be distinguished by the deeper scallops in the leaf-like feature of the hind tibia and the addition of three white spots across the hemelytra. This species is widely dispersed from New York to Florida and as far west as Iowa and Minnesota, as well as the southwest regions of the United States into Mexico.Less than a minute after spotting that one, I spotted another on the floor of our northwest patio:
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I have always been fascinated by bugs. Most Latin names of flora or fauna make some kind of sense, but Leptoglossus baffles me. It apparently means "Shiny in bed". It could mean "glossy/hides in wait', as it is an ambush predator. The leaf-footed bug is a type of assassin bug that nabs other bugs, spears them with its piercing-sucking mouth parts and sucks them dry. Pretty cool in the bug world.
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