Nature Done Wright

Incorporating the Celery Farm and Screech Owl Companion blogs

November 23, 2018

Mystery Video Solved: Assassin Bug!

On Monday, I posted the above video and asked:

While at Bayou Sauvage on the outskirts of New Orleans, we saw this weird bug being harassed by caterpillars, including the one in the video.

Can anyone ID the bug or the caterpillar?

Dana Price replied:

The bug is a 'wheel bug' (Reduviidae), also known as an assassin bug. If you harass them enough, they'll take that large proboscis folded underneath their head and nail you with it. Pain is generally worse than a bee sting and can hang around for days.

Glad I didn't pet it!

More about wheel bugs and assassin bugs is here.