Native wheel bug uses it proboscis to kill prey. (C) Joseph Berger/Bugwood.org
Last summer while trimming back a shrub, I got stung. It wasn’t a bee, wasp or hornet sting.
I explored the shrub to see what caused the pain and found an insect that looked like it had a wheel on its back. On Google, I typed “bug that looks like it has a wheel on its back” and the answer came back wheel bug (Arilus cristatus). Fortunately, the sting wasn’t a full-on assault, but rather more like a warning. I definitely felt the jab, and the discomfort lasted about an hour.
“Wheel bugs look other worldly,” said Jim McCormac, author, photographer, speaker and blogger. “The sight of a fully grown adult (wheel bug) is sure to get a reaction from anyone who sees it.” McCormac, a botanist with Ohio Division of Wildlife, wrote about wheel bug on his blog Oct. 21, after finding a second one on his garage wall.
The native wheel bug is a member of the assassin bug group – quick, efficient and deadly to prey. This steam punk bug, at nearly 1½ inches long, has a killer proboscis.
With lightning speed, the bug jabs the proboscis into its victim. The proboscis pumps in chemicals, which quickly disable the prey and turn its insides to slush, which the wheel bug sucks out, he said.
“That’s an efficient proboscis: combination killing needle and drinking straw,” said McCormac. On his website, you can find a video of wheel bug dispatching prey and sucking out its innards. Although the jab can be quite painful to humans, it is not deadly.
McCormac says it’s been a good year for wheel bugs. He has noticed they have a taste for brown marmorated stink bugs, and reports finding fewer of the exotic, cilantro-scented insects in his Columbus, Ohio, home. He wonders if the wheel bugs are exploiting the exotic stink bugs as a food source and impacting their numbers. One can hope, he said. Yes, we can.
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(Since this column was filed, INPAWS has closed registration for the annual conference, because the venue is filled to capacity. I apologize for any inconvenience. Check the INPAWS website frequently for announcements of the 2016 conference and other events and programs.)
McCormac is among the speakers at “Bioscaping: Gardening for Life,” the Indiana Native Plant and Wildflower Society’s annual conference, Saturday, Nov. 14 at IUPUI. He will talk about “Butterflies and Moths: Their Darker Side.”
“This is Indiana: The Historic Hoosier Landscape Prior to 1816,” is the topic of Mike Homoya, a botanist with Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and author of “Orchids of Indiana.” Kevin Tungesvick, a restoration ecologist, will speak on “A Dangerous Precedent: The Mounds Reservoir Proposal.”
Popular speaker Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home and co-author of The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden, will address “Rebuilding Nature’s Relationship at Home.” His co-author, Rick Darke, will give two presentations: “Looking at the Layered Landscape, and Designing” and “Maintaining the Living Landscape.”