Junk Bug

Is it an egg?……..Is it gall?........Is it a pupa?
No, it’s a Junk Bug.

As its Halloween tonight I thought we would delve into the eerie story of the Junk Bug.... 🎃 💀 🦇

 

It was early October, not a month to go looking for insects, the days are drawing shorter and the nights colder. But if you look carefully, you might find something eating aphids on an autumn afternoon. This was one such afternoon. I saw what looked like a speck of dirt on a leaf which needed closer inspection. My first thoughts were it was going to be a micro moth pupa, a gall, or an egg - it turned out to be none of them.

Some micro moths are tiny, and many resemble a bit of poo, their white markings act as a form of camouflage to fool birds that they are not just a small snack. But it wasn’t that, on closer inspection it turned out to be a speck of detritus instead.

 

Nothing to write home about as the saying goes, then it moved,

 

It moved!

 

Odd I thought, it was a breezy day maybe the wind caught it, then it moved again but up the leaf defying the laws of gravity.

 

Hang on a minute I thought!

 

So, I watched it a little longer and it continued to move further.

 

This needed a magnifying glass as it was so small, and on finding one in my pocket I took a closer look. Underneath the moving detritus was an insect larva and it was carrying detritus on its back. Yuk!

 

Unknown at the time, but as I often do I take a few notes, some pictures and on this occasion a video as it crawled from the front of the leaf to the back. Sorry the video is not of better quality but hopefully you get the idea and the story here is not about my video skills. The little critter was probably detecting my presence as I moved in front of it for closer inspection, deciding I was a predator it to hid before it got eaten. 

 

Once I got home, I used the internet to research further and not far did I have to look discover it was a creature called a ‘junk bug’, a larva which predates aphids. I must admit I didn't see any aphids on the leaf, so it was doing an excellent job of clearing them up. What I hadn’t expected was that the detritus on its back was the indigestible remains from all its prey. Yuk! A clever way of using rubbish to protect and fool would be predators.

 

Every larva must grow up so what will it become, a beautiful Green Lacewing Chrysoperla carnea of course, who knew that.

 

Happy Halloween all! 🕷️ 🕷️ 🕷️

Isn’t nature wonderful.