An Assassin Bug

A guy from my work found a bug over the weekend. He didn't know what it was so he brought it in to work to see if anyone had seen one before. Knowing that my wife and children would not rest until they had identified it, I offered to take it home and let them study it. I took this picture of it crawling on the children's craft table. We found out that it's called a "Wheel Bug" because of the cog-like feature on it's back. Below is an excerpt from a web-site describing the bug. This particular specimen was around 1 inch in length. Enjoy!

The Wheel Bug, Arilus cristatus, has some of the best-developed mouthparts of any True Bug. Its formidable beak arises at the anterior end of its long tubular head and unfolds forward. When it encounters a prey item--usually some adult insect or caterpillar--it typically lunges forward in its own slow way, grabs onto the prey with its front legs, and buries its hypodermic beak into some soft body part of the hapless prey. The Wheel Bug then injects enzyme-laden saliva--which immobilizes the prey within 30 seconds and turns its parts into porridge--after which the predatory bug sucks out all the victim's bodily fluids. This activity, of course, kills the prey item, which is why the Wheel Bug is classified in the Reduviidae--the Assassin Bug Family. It's worth noting that Wheel Bugs aren't all that particular about where they stick their beaks--which is fair warning that humans should use appropriate care when handling one. Some folk have allergic reactions to the bite, while others simply say a Wheel Bug nibble hurts ten times more than a hornet sting and takes weeks or months to heal.

Excerpt from this web-site: