Field of Science

Name the Bug # 30

If I'm continuing with the supposed pattern of these challenges, it's time for an easy one:



But because it is relatively simple, I'm going to want at least a genus ID (and preferably some supporting info).

Attribution to follow.

Update: Identity available here. Photo from here.

12 comments:

  1. The first thing that came to mind was Jerusalem cricket (Stenopelmatus), but on second look I know that's not right.

    ~Kai

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  2. I'm pretty sure it's a Rockcrawler- sometimes called Icecrawler- family Grylloblattidae. It looks cricket-ish, but doesn't have a souped-up pair of rear legs. It's got the long-ish, banded abdomen, and you can see the cerci in the shot.

    But I'm struggling with the genus. I'm going to go with Grylloblata, only because the cerci look real short (though maybe that's just the aspect of the shot), and I'm pre-disposed to it, as it lives near me (though somewhat higher).

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  3. The Watcher pointed out why it's not a cricket. Mind you, it's not a grylloblattid, either.

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  4. I'm going to take a wild guess and say its a Lake Tahoe Benthic Stonefly (Capnia lacustra). I've never seen a picture of one but apparently its one of the few wingless plecopterans. This bug does look kind of stonefly-like but without wings, so that's my shot in the dark.

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  5. Hmm trickier than it looks. I don't think it's a stonefly - looks too robust and long-legged, and doesn't have that splayed look (I'm going on the jizz here...?). Basal neopteran, definitely not an earwig, orthopteran or dictyopteran... and not a grylloblattid either? Maybe some kind of primitive phasmid? I'm fresh out of ideas.

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  6. Obviously harder than I expected :-D. I might make things easier by mentioning that this photo was taken in a Javan cave.

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  7. Well I don't know of any cave phasmids so i'm gonna row back and say it's some kind of orthopteran. Blast if I know what sort though. A javan one. You win, Taylor. This time.

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  8. I got it! Its an Arixeniid dermopteran, probably Arexenia esau.

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  9. Adam has it!

    I honestly didn't expect it to take that long for someone to get it. Not because arixeniids are easily recognisable as earwigs, but because I thought someone was bound to know about them already.

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  10. Actually I did know about them but dismissed them because all the images I had seen of them were of much stouter, heavier legged and more setose individuals. I guess the difference may be due to growth stage.

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  11. Awesome. Now I know what to look for in Javan caves, besides ricinuleid arachnids. I was so sure it wasn't an earwig too. In fact this morning I looked at a picture purporting to be Arixenia esau... which looked not *a bit* like this! http://tolweb.org/Dermaptera... Grrr.

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  12. Simple mistake - the labels for the photos of Arixenia and Hemimerus have gotten swapped over. The actual photo of Arixenia does look rather different from the one I've shown you but that can be put down to the difference between a live and a pinned specimen.

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