Entomologists, what the heck kind of bug is this?

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"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24

September 22, 2021, 07:39 AM

flesheatingvirus

quote:
Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
Without the big thing on its back, it looks like the bug from "Star Trek The Wrath of Khan".

Never saw that before.

Haha! Good call!

________________________________________

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September 22, 2021, 08:16 AM

joel9507

Ant lion, as noted above.

As a kid, I used to see these small depressions in the sand, and scoop them out with a sifter to capture these. In Michigan, at least after being sifted, they didn't have the camo-crud on their backs, they came out just clean. Very small, maybe 1/4 inch, from tail to tip of jaw. Looked like this, close up.

I'd put them in an empty margarine container I'd filled with sand, and watch them dig in and create their own trap. They back into the dirt (bodies have a contour that makes that simple, like an airfoil) and then flip their head/mouthpiece and move in a circle and do it again until they have a depression that is shaped like a perfect cone, like an inverted volcano. That's their trap/home, and there, in the middle, they sit.

When something stumbles into the trap, it tries to get out and knocks some sand into the center. That wakes up the ant lion, and it throws more sand up to knock the unlucky victim closer to the jaws in the center. More often than not, at least for small stuff, this results in a meal.

It was very cool (except for the ant) and since I liked lacewings (which as an adult I discovered were great predators of plant pests) learning about their origins was fascinating.

They are pretty common. Those looking for ant lions traps in their yards, keep an eye out for something like this in areas with sandy/fine soil:

And, yeah, as an adult when I saw what Khan did on Ceti Alpha 5, it was pretty clear what they used as a conceptual model for the bug.

September 22, 2021, 09:28 AM

Expert308

quote:
Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
Without the big thing on its back, it looks like the bug from "Star Trek The Wrath of Khan".

Heh. That was my first thought as well. Ceti Eel.

September 23, 2021, 07:01 AM

gearhounds

quote:
Ant lion, as noted above

Ant lions and aphid lions are different critters; same genus. Both larva have an extremely predatory nature.

September 23, 2021, 10:55 AM

copaup

quote:
Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
Without the big thing on its back, it looks like the bug from "Star Trek The Wrath of Khan".

Never saw that before.

" He put... creatures... in our bodies... to control our minds. He made us... say lies... do things. He thought he controlled us, but he did not."