Email from our Bug Expert Doc Larson:

"You ask about a black and red bug that you are finding all over your school, but I need a picture of this bug to be able to identify it for sure. But a very common insect which is black and red that comes out to play whenever it warms up is the boxelder bug which overwinter as adults. And yes, wings give you a very good idea what order of insect you are looking at. For example, if this is a boxelder bug, the wings lay folded over the back of the insect, over the abdomen actually, and the wings are not clear, but rather are pigmented and the back half of the wings are overlapping. The back pair of wings are folded up underneath so you do not see them unless the insect opens all of its wings. As an aside, insects that have this overlapping type of wings actually are known as true bugs and are the one type of insect for which it is correct and proper to call bugs!

Another option for a black and red insect is that it is a beetle, but I am sure you would know a beetle when you saw it, especially the lady beetle. Beetles have the front pair of wings hardened into shells or wing covers which shield the clear hindwing that is folded up under those covers." (David G. Larson, 03 June 2003)

So, we provided this picture of our bug:

"Yes, this is a bug in the scientific sense, which means it is in the Order Hemiptera (word meaning half-wing). The diagnostic things are:

1. Overlapping wings.

2. Wing is thickened on front half and a membranous flap off the trailing end of the wing.

3. A large triangle between the front ends of the wing.

4. A "tube" runs from the front of the head back between the base segments of the legs (the leg segment is called the coxa, which attaches to a portion of the body called the thorax—the same part that the wings attach to except that is the top/dorsal part of the thorax). Anyway, back to the tube—this tube is in fact one of the mouthparts of the bug, used as they pierce plants to get at plant sap and suck it up ... consequently this tube is called a piercing-sucking type of mouth (a straw essentially)." (David G. Larson, 03 June 2003)

And what is it?

"As I had suspected from your descriptions, this is a boxelder bug, although most people in Alberta call it a "maple bug" because it feeds primarily on the sap of Maple trees. If squashed, they have orange colored blood which stains just about everything it comes in contact with. The blood also contains chemicals which discourage predators ... after eating one, they do not want to eat another and the black/orange color advertises that fact." (David G. Larson, 03 June 2003)

Thanks Doc Larson!

Mrs. Clifford from the Galileo Educational Network visits our class to hear our questions about bugs, and she is curious about bugs too!

Home