Strange bug help.

jr2280

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ADAE6FA3-AD83-4D49-9BAE-D109A4F1DC96.jpgOk. Anybody out there able to tell me what kind of bug this is? I was cutting dead branches off my Elm trees this weekend and had several of these on my shirt in the process. My kids really want to know what it is as do I. I can’t find a match on the Internet. Looks almost like a type of mantis the way it holds its front legs, but totally different head. Body was soft not a shell. And go.
 


KDM

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What you have there is an immature member of the family Reduviidae also known as an assassin bug. When it's an adult it will have wings over it's back and be it's final color. It's a beneficial insect and completely harmless if you leave it be. If you handle it there is a chance you will get stabbed by that beaklike deal coming off it's face. They pierce other insects with that and drain them dry. Looks nasty, but is one of the good guys.
 
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jr2280

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I thought it looked similar to those but the front legs looked different to me.
 

KDM

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Look at a pic of an adult and the front legs won't look as out of place. Also, they do somewhat use them like mantids by pinning their prey down with those spines on their front legs before feeding. However, their legs are nowhere near as strong as a mantids and these insects use their front legs for locomotion much more than mantids which hold their front legs aloft much of the time.
 

LBrandt

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Looks like something right out of a horror movie if you blow up the photo. Starship Troopers comes to mind, and I don't mean the shower scene.
 
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Twitch

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What you have there is an immature member of the family Reduviidae also known as an assassin bug. When it's an adult it will have wings over it's back and be it's final color. It's a beneficial insect and completely harmless if you leave it be. If you handle it there is a chance you will get stabbed by that beaklike deal coming off it's face. They pierce other insects with that and drain them dry. Looks nasty, but is one of the good guys.

Im not going to say I disagree with your assessment about being one of the good guys but when reading your description and looking at the above picture the term “good guys”
doesn’t exactly leap to mind;:;rofl
 

johnr

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It’s a disabled Christian fishing bug, a rarity in these here parts
 

jr2280

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I was going to say it was a rather docile bug that never attempted to bite or stab. I did not know if it was injured from the branch coming down or if it was a straight, disabled Christian that was sad he couldn’t go fishing.
 

LBrandt

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All bugs look the same when they are on the heel of my boot.
 

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