@disenfranchisedzillennial submitted: Beautiful wheel bug I found on the sidewalk.
An excellent friend! I would exercise caution when handling these and not use your bare hands if possible as a jab from their mouth tube can be very painful.
[PHOTOS TAKEN: JUNE 13, 2023 | Image IDs: Six photos of a young wheel bug climbing from the side of a dirty white metal building to a green leaf of a tree /End IDs.]
one wheel bug riding another, a mated pair i assume? never seen this happen before. they spent a while just walking around this little concrete pillar.
not a wasp, but still a painfully venomous insect, so i figured this belonged here.
do not attempt, this was an accidental handling (was moving him with a stick, he climbed from the stick to my hand before I could react), these insects can inflict a very painful bite. regardless of that, wheel bugs are highly beneficial insects as they kill and eat many pests that other insects will not touch, such as japanese beetles, so please leave them be if you happen across one.
“We finally entered a large forest of trees called anaphanta, which produced a most peculiar fruit: enormous apples as large as gourds. The inhabitants, the Phytoi, a people some twenty-four ells in height, had horns that were around one and one-half ell and had long feet. But their forearms were saws. When they caught sight of us, they rushed to meet us. Horrified at their appearance, I ordered that one be captured. When we attacked them while shouting and blowing the trumpets, they fled.” - Travels to the Otherworld and Other Fantastic Realms: Medieval Journeys into the Beyond, Claude Lecouteux, Corinne Lecouteux
Saw a wheelbug feeding on a spider of some sort. Sorry, the focus was so fuzzy. It was hard to get a good angle with my 200 mm so I wouldn't have to get close to it.