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mouldy

By Mouldy

Lanarkshire, Scotland

Does anyone know what this wee creature sitting on my petunia is?
Note the viscious-looking probscis!




Answers

 

Looks like a vine weevil to me...

21 Jun, 2013

 

MG you scaremonger! Too long in the leg. It's a bug, sap sucking type, probably one that hasn't got a common name. I've tried to look it up. I've got a great book called Complete British Insects (it follows on from Incomplete British Insects!), which shows lots of bugs, but the foreshortened view prevents me from tying it down to a specific one.

21 Jun, 2013

 

Oops - I siad it 'looked like' and I freely admit I'm not hugely knowledgeable on bugs!

21 Jun, 2013

 

It does have the wrong sort of beak for one of the predatory types, though.

21 Jun, 2013

 

Some sort of gnat.

22 Jun, 2013

 

Good golly, the gnats grow big in the UK, Kildermorie!! : )

22 Jun, 2013

 

Looks like a Datura flower, so the Gnat is not that big, thank goodness!

22 Jun, 2013

 

Hmm...I was pretty sure that it is a Petunia, like Mouldy says.

23 Jun, 2013

 

The proboscis was blade shaped, looked like it would have no trouble piercing flesh & the wee beastie was approx half an inch or one & a half cms long...not including the legs.
To put it into perspective - the petunia it's sat on is four inches wide.
Now you understand why I said the proboscis is viscious-looking!
Should I run for the hills? ;-)

23 Jun, 2013

 

The assassin bug has a similarly shaped body, but has a thinner, jointed proboscis for drilling between the chitin plates of its normal prey--other bugs! The vegetarian species normally have stouter probosces, for drilling into tough stems or fruit rinds.

25 Jun, 2013

 

So, which one was that, I wonder, Tugbrethil?
Unfortunately, my phone camera is too naff to provide enough detail. Lol.

5 Jul, 2013

How do I say thanks?

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