# Some odd bugs and a plea for an identification



## tpe (Sep 13, 2010)

Really at a loss to identify this one so any help welcome.
It seems like an assassin bug l, and presumably an adult as the wings are fully formed.

1






And the rostrum (not easy but somewhat possible to see here) is quite assassin like?

2




Presumably all the spikes are for camoflage?

3 





It was found in the foothills of the pyrenees near Figures northern spain in short grased grass and ground plants, sorry not sure what type.

4
a bit of an oridnary one, but perhaps a different take on them, and something different for variaty






5
Cute eyes






6
This looks nicer bigger but hopefully ok at this size too





7
Another one that is quite hard to spot sometimes





If you can make a good guess or identify the first one it would be much appreciated as i could not find a single picture like it or reference to it in google.

Thanks

Tim


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## michaelleggero (Sep 14, 2010)

if you are near a college go talk to some of the teachers there, they live for this kind of stuff

Mike

http://www.michaelleggero.com


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## tpe (Sep 14, 2010)

michaelleggero said:


> if you are near a college go talk to some of the teachers there, they live for this kind of stuff
> 
> Mike
> 
> http://www.michaelleggero.com


 

thanks mike, the professor at the local zoological museum came up with this "not a reduviid but a coreid of the genus Phyllomorpha; there are a number of species, but the well-known one is P.laciniata Villiers, 1789;"

http://cc.oulu.fi/~inverteb/organisms.html 

Totally new to me, and quite a facinating reporductive stratagy. Incedently also a vilification of the nondirectionality of evolution, as the stratagy has obviously hit a local maxima. The female lays her eggs on the backs of males to avoid them getting eaten if left on a plant. The poor male is then more likly to fall to predation. The males have then developed a stratagy whereby they will try and rubb the eggs off their back. If they are sucessfull then presumably they would have fewer young and so reduce their chances of reproduction. If unsucessfull then they are more prone to getting eaten by some other predator. Either way they are stuck in an evolutionary dead end where the only sucessfull stratagy necessitates a change of stratagy and increased efficiencey wont help. Poor guys 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




. 

Tim


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## Arkanjel Imaging (Sep 14, 2010)

Great group of captures Tim.  That first one does indeed look like a member of the assassain family.  Pretty extreme though.


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