#leafhopper assassin bug

[onenicebugperday]

Found this little dude crawling up my leg, took me by surprise in late January :) What kind of gentleman is this?

Location for ID in second ask for privacy

A friend and a pal! Looks like a leafhopper assassin bug, Zelus renardii. Well. I suppose a friend and a pal only if you are not a leafhopper

[sandpaperoctopi]

assassins on the buckwheat

[kabutoden]

Sorry if youve answered this before, but how do you chose the bugs to assign to each character ? Also they are all really cool and fun :3

Hi, I’ve explained this before but I’ll do it again! Last time I explained it was less specific to the character and more to the caste, so this’ll be a little different. I use the metaphors and associations of the insect to pick their species as well as their diet. I’m calling the species a troll mimics their ‘morph’.

Aradia: Fly. Associated with death. Detritivore. Tavros: Craneflies. Frailty, timidness, clumsiness. Thinking longhorn beetle might be a funnier pun though, so I might change it. Herbivore. Sollux: Bees. Construction, intelligence, connections to groupthink/hiveminds/psi. Herbivore. Nepeta: Caterpillar. It’s a pun. Herbivore. Karkat: Isopod. Highly social insect. Durable shell representing defensiveness/personal barriers, but also serving literal aspect of ‘thick skin.’ Detritivore. Kanaya: Hornet. Dangerous but caring parents, association with femininity. Omnivore. Terezi: Dragonfly. Good eyesight’s associated with clarity, though large eyes would also be easier to blind. Good at flying. Dragon pun. Carnivore. Vriska: Spider. Manipulative, association with femininity. Carnivore. Equius: Beetle. Strong. Omnivore. Gamzee: Praying mantis. Associations with religion due to unique praying pose. Carnivore. Eridan: Anolomacaris. Extinct skilled distance hunter. Carnivore. Feferi: Trilobite. Large curved spines, trident tongue, ‘ruler of precambrian seas.’ Detritvore.

All insects before Jade are herbivores or detritivores, and all insects jade and after are middle to highblood can hunt. This was to set up an intentionally antagonistic relationship between lowbloods and highbloods. It’s also a new way to play with themes in my personal work which are all about animal dynamics.

I mostly did the human kids as bugs as a joke, because they’re not aliens at all so its funny!! But I had a ton of fun with them so here we go again. I chose them off colors and gimmicks.

John: Spitbug. They’re bright green and gooey boys. Like ectoplasm. Rose: Rosy maple moth. Name association—also bright pink and yellow against their will. Rose wishes she was a cool goth all-black moth. Moths are associated with ‘seeking light.’ Dave: Assassin beetle/wheel bug. Have a gear shaped bump on back, large black eyes, efficient predators, some red coloration. Fits in with his expectations and pressures. Jade: Wooly aphid. They’re white, fuzzy, with rainbow wings. That’s so her.

Jane: Candy-striped leafhopper. Bright cyan with red highlights, food-themed name.Roxy: Pink-spotted cattleheart. Gorgeous pink and black coloring. Butterflies are nectar-drinkers, associated with celebration and inebriation. Kinda clumsy too. Dirk: Tiger beetle. They can move in bursts of motion faster than they can see. That’s flash stepping. Orange and black. Jake: Diving beetle. Dark green with orange highlights, explorers who go where other beetles cannot.

[eon-bug-collection]

juvenile leafhopper assassin bug! it looks like a sour gummy here....

[bite-sizedttrpg]

Bite-Sized!

A Bug-Based TTRPG

Bite-Sized! is a D6 tabletop role-playing game where you play as bugs on an alternate version of Earth. In this universe, humans never existed and bugs are the most intelligent creatures. Explore a world filled with giant creatures, towering flora, magic, and deadly beasts.

This TTRPG is made to be picked up by beginners or veterans of the TTRPG scene. Bite-Sized! has 3 archetypes to choose from: Warrior, Spellblade, and Sorcerer. Warriors' expertise is in weapons and maneuvering during combat. Sorcerers' expertise is in magic. Whether that be for utility or combat potential. Spellblade combine both sorcerers' perks and warriors' perks for a jack-of-all-trades type of play.

You can also choose from 10 different lineages to play as.

Child of Akinoka: This lineage is based on cicadas, leafhoppers, spittlebugs, and froghoppers. Use your powerful maneuvering skills to outpace your competition.

Child of Antipiphyra: This lineage is based on flies, scorpionflies, and fleas. With amazing reaction time and movement, you can dodge and weave through any obstacle.

Child of Arnaea: This lineage is based on arachnids. With good utility like the ability to have extra limbs, you can fill many roles in the party.

Child of Hetotira: This lineage is based on shield bugs and assassin bugs. A powerful bite and aquatic capabilities set this lineage apart.

Child of Hydropaltira: This lineage is based on dragonflies, mayflies, and damselflies. As the most powerful fliers, you will be the master of the skies.

Child of Hinotira: This lineage is based on bees, ants, and wasps. Pheromones and abilities that are great for cooperation will ensure this lineage is a bonus to any party.

Child of Kolotira: This lineage is based on beetles. With the strongest defense of any lineage and great strength, this lineage is fit for the most strenuous of tasks.

Child of Ledotira: This lineage is based on butterflies and moths. Great stealth skills and good flight makes this perfect for players who want to be flashy and stealthy.

Child of Miropota: This lineage is based on centipedes and millipedes. With amazing abilities for combat, you will help your party against even the toughest of foes.

Child of Ortotira: This lineage is based on crickets and grasshoppers. This lineage is great for those who wish to be able to fill any role.

All these lineages have different abilities to choose from based on real animals! Some have an exaggerated effect but the base for everything is found in nature.

This game is still a work in progress. There will be updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! Mondays are the newest update on the game, Wednesdays are lore days, and Fridays are spotlight days! On Thursday there will be a poll for what the spotlight will be on.

[spectruminterests]

Bug race, but it’s true bugs only

Cicada (photo by Shannon Potter on Unsplash)

Leafhopper (photo by Mariusz Dabrowski on Unsplash)

Stink bug (photo by Erik Karits on Unsplash)

Wheel bug (photo by Steven Van Elk on Unsplash)

Assassin bug (photo by Gustavo Fernando Durán on Flickr)

[ratcandy]

hang on I talked about these guys once ages ago but I was reminded of them this morning and feel a need to share them. Now that there's suddenly more eyes here. Need everyone to know one of my favorite insects

(Photo credit)

look at this thing. Appreciate how it looks like a cross between a stick bug (with a slender, elongate body) and a mantis (those sick raptorial claws). Look at and appreciate how silly they look, all weirdly positioned and wonky.

(Photo credit)

On first glance you'd probably think this thing is a mantis that just lies flat. Or perhaps a stick bug that evolved in a weird way. But no actually. It's neither of those things.

It's in the order Hemiptera, which is the order inhabited by stink bugs, assassin bugs, leafhoppers, and cicadas. Because it's got a rostrum. Which is essentially a fucked up and evil beak.

(Photo credit, which is actually just electronically published images from the book "Guide to Aquatic Invertebrates of the Upper Midwest")

And they are positioned like that because they're an aquatic species. They're little swimmy bitches.

So that's fucked up, right. Because it looks so much like a stick or mantis, only to juke you with being a True Bug. Well what's even MORE fucked up?

what do you think we Called these things. What did we as a human species decide to name them.

that's right

WATER SCORPIONS

that's not even the same CLASS !! Those are ARACHNIDS!! These are INSECTS!!!

At least for the other half of the family (Nepidae) it makes SOME amount of SENSE,

(Photo credit)

LIKE I GET THAT, even if it's still an Insect at least I get it SUPERFICIALLY...

but when you off-handedly refer to these thangs as a water scorpion, people are probably thinking one of those guys with the long barbed-tails and big snippy snippy claws and are all horrified when you're like "oh I just pick up that little twig in my hands hehe" NO!!!! They'rE NOT scorpion .

It's a silly little stick cosplaying as a mantis when in reality it's a stink bug. and it's name is Wet Scorpion.

Appreciate. Appreciate it with me

[firelord-frowny]

Frowny, Frowny, Frowny! I have a bug for you! 😀

Who's this teeny lil dude?

Ooooh that’s a leafhopper! Perhaps a species called the “versute sharpshooter”! Leafhoppers are in the “true bug” family with cicadas and assassin bugs and aphids 😍☺️

[isopogs]

This funky friend is a leafhopper assassin bug NYMPH (Zelus renardii)! These fellas are native to North and Central America, and they use a sticky substance on their legs to catch prey!

This nymph will grow up to be an adult that looks like this:

(Photo by Sagehuz on iNaturalist, under a CC-BY-NC license)

[ailurinae]

There are no true bug emoji as of Unicode 15, so text will have to do.

[onenicebugperday]

I found a friend in southwest Tennessee!

A child!! Looks like a leafhopper assassin bug nymph :)

[sandpaperoctopi]

good night at the bug light

met a black webspinner friend

and a thread-legged bug. the first I've found in the yard

green lacewings and two different species of brown lacewing

and this guy

[jupiterswasphouse]

Actually kind of intrigued by the amount of people in the notes of the "actual bug race" poll who are like "What's the spider doing here! That's not a bug!!"-

The most common colloquial definition I've seen for a bug is literally almost any arthropod, maybe barring the majority of crustaceans, which is also how I refer to them, because it's just useful to have the umbrella term- As well as the actual scientific definition of bugs which is to say Hemiptera (Cicadas, stink bugs, assassin bugs, leaf-footed bugs, planthoppers, leafhoppers, aphids)- otherwise, if anything, I've seen people ADD to that definition, including related panarthropod species, worms, and even occasionally snails and slugs (The latter two of which are actually closer related to octopi, squid, clams, etc. than to arthropods)-

So it's really intriguing seeing people draw the line at spiders/arachnids

[backyardentomologist]

A candy striped leafhopper, also known as the red-banded leafhopper, perches on a milkweed plant in the middle of the night. Like most leafhoppers, candy-striped leafhoppers feed mostly on plant sap, which can be harmful to crops and other cultivated plants. They are actually vectors of certain plant diseases, such as leaf scorch. Leaf scorch has been responsible for the decline of certain ornamental tree populations, such as oak and elm trees.

Despite the harm they can inflict on plants, leafhoppers like this one are important sources of food to predators like ladybugs and assassin bugs, who act as a sort of natural pest control, eating harmful insects that would have otherwise damaged crops or other plants.

These guys are on the larger end of leafhopper species; adults measure 6.7-8.4 mm in length, which is much, much larger than some other species—some are small enough to fit on the head of a pin!

There are three named subspecies of the candy-striped leafhopper, which is bizarre to me. Who was the first person to notice that? Hopefully, they’ll figure out how to combat leaf scorch disease—without the pesticide.

[ironcladbeetle]

looking at wikipedia articles about various true bugs (hemiptera) and realizing this is just an order full of banger after banger after banger. just the suborder Auchenorrhyncha on its own is full of insect greatest hits like cicadas and leafhoppers. but there's also cool guys like assassin bugs and my favorite nightmare animal, giant water bugs.

(... there's also kissing bugs and bed bugs but we don't have to talk about those)

[bone-free-as-the-wind]

Leafhopper Assassin Bug wondering what I’m up to. Eventually he let me move him to the safety of some wild sage.

(photo by S Suzuki-Martinez)