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#eastern toe biter
gfdelmar · 19 days
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onenicebugperday · 3 years
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@sushiikat submitted: I saw what I think is a giant water bug (toe-biter) at a metro station in the DC area. He was a BIG boi. At least the size of my palm. Biggest bug I’ve ever seen.
I think he was attracted to the light. I hope he made it out in the morning and went back home 😔 I did not have a way to safely transport him or I would have.
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Yes, looks like a giant water bug. Funny place for them although they can fly, so I suppose they can end up anywhere. And yes, they are attracted to light! I believe in my heart they made it safely to some nice water to live their best water bug life :)
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calosoma-amitch · 6 years
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Eastern Toe-Biter (Benacus griseus) , Newark DE. May 2018. 
One of the largest “true bug” in the United States, the eastern toe-biter is an apex predator of the aquatic invertebrate world. Found in ponds, shallow pools, and even roadside ditches, this predator is a hunter of aquatic insects, snails, and even fish, catching them with their large front legs and piercing their bodies with a syringe-like mouth. The name “toe-biter” is very apt, as anyone might attest to swimming where the bugs are present. 
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bogleech · 7 years
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Favorite Florida “Bugs:”
Many additions to my Florida post are like "don't forget the BUGS!!!!!" but of course outside the all-consuming ants and mosquitoes, they were the only thing I loved there! Here are my top ten:
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Burying Beetle (photo: http://majikphil.blogspot.com/2011/10/burying-beetle.html)
These live throughout the states, but I never met one until Florida. They're the single most Halloween animal that has ever evolved, with an orange and black color scheme that sometimes even looks like a scary face (the markings are rather randomized by individual!) and amazing mating habits, where the male and female actually physically bury an entire dead bird or rodent together. The female gets buried alive with it and raises the babies in the "grave" until she dies, while the male stays above ground guarding the site from other insects.
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Two Striped Walking Stick (image: http://bugguide.net/node/view/242810)
This is one of the few and the largest walking sticks or Phasmids found in the United States. The females are HUGE, like five or six inches in length, while the tiny mails ride around on their backs mating with them for days straight. They eat only a few species of leaves and were difficult to keep alive in captivity, but always delightful to encounter. If angry enough however they can spray acid from their tails that you do not want to get in your eyes.
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Skunk Roaches (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_woods_cockroach)
Like most roaches, these have no interest in living in human homes. In fact Florida is home to over SEVENTY species of wild, non-pest roach which include some spectacularly huge and exotic species in select locales, though these skunk roaches were the most I ever really found. They're reasonably big and fat, they look jet black to cherry red under different lighting, and they're so named for their defensive stink when irritated. To me, the stink smelled identical to cherry cough syrup and a lot of people thought it smelled pleasant.
I had a colony of these going on a terrarium for the longest time, until tiny ants, the size of grains of pepper, found their way into it and ate every last roach.
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Grizzled Mantis (http://jpgmag.com/photos/3198737)
This is a species of "bark mantis," excellently camouflaged when it actually hangs out on trees of course, and very different from the mantises you may be used to. Those tend to be patient ambush predators, while the grizzled mantis, like other "bark mantises," is an active runner! It just plain chases after and grabs other insects more like a wolf or a cheetah.
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Eastern Toe Biter (http://bugguide.net/node/view/115901/bgpage)
These are also found up and down the Eastern U.S. and probably elsewhere, but growing up in Maryland, I only ever saw one. In Central Florida, I saw more like one thousand. On certain nights around August they would leave the water to mate in massive swarms, and I'd find them scuttling all over parking lots. I actually caught about 40 of them once and sold them for $100 to a college that was doing an insect zoo! I caught them by picking them up behind the head, which they're helpless to fight against, though if you were to grab one from the front it has a bite that feels like a hornet sting. They’re large enough to prey on fish!
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Sea Spider (http://suzanmeldonian.photoshelter.com/image/I0000QFErOnVWGkw)
Yeah we ACTUALLY FOR REAL encountered a SEA SPIDER once when we visited Sebastian Inlet, the only Florida ocean place we enjoyed due to its wildlife...though Sebastian Inlet also kept giving us infections in our hands and feet so that's fun I guess.
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Lubber Grasshopper (http://bugguide.net/node/view/35426/bgimage)
These are America's largest grasshoppers, they're incredibly fat, heavy, slow and docile to the point you can often just pick them right up without them trying to jump away, though adults might angrily flash their beautiful wings to try and startle you!
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Tree Asp (http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=245914)
I was so excited to see some of these in person for the first time in my life, all over a particular park that probably could have used a warning sign. They look like crawling toupees and are just completely adorable, but they're VERY VENOMOUS caterpillars with needles hidden all throughout the fluff. Touching one is said to cause incredible pain and an ongoing rash.
I kept three of them, they all spun cocoons.....and instead of moths, only parasitic flies hatched out, which was pretty fascinating! Even more fun than moths! They looked almost identical to regular houseflies but would have been some sort of tachinid. There were about two flies per caterpillar host.
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Fiery Searcher (http://www.bugmuseum.com/live-searchers.html)
America's largest ground beetle, and also called a "caterpillar hunter" because its diet consists primarily of caterpillars, grubs and other soft-bodied insect larvae, though if you ever catch one, they'll also eat feeder crickets!
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Cow Killer
If one interesting thing can be said of Florida, it's that there's certainly a diverse patchwork of ecosystems. On one side of the house was all pine trees and on the other side was all sand. The sandy empty lot was the only place I ever see these velvet ants, actually wingless, female wasps and completely adorable. When angry enough they make a squeaking sound, and they can jump! They are however called "cow killers" because their sting is said to feel just that painful. It only just struck me how many things on my list are venomous. There really aren't that many venomous insects in this country, but they do seem to enjoy Florida. I guess when it comes to wildlife, Florida is America's Australia, though in all my years there I was never hurt by any of these great animals
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