Thursday, December 07, 2006

Circus of the Spineless #15

The circus is in town, the town called Words and Pictures. A wonderful presentation of invertebrate stories from all over the world, from water bears to banana slugs to harvestmen plus my own encounter with a burying beetle, and much, much more. Check it out!


But first enjoy my most recent photo of a western conifer seed bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis), a perennial favourite among Google searchers (right up there with red rabbit pee, here and here).

western conifer seed bug
Found on the patio, November 29.
Photographed on the woodpile.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We've had these visitors every Winter in our past three houses here in upstate New York. Now that I think of it, those houses sat among 1. red pines, 2. red and white pines, and 3. hemlocks and a few white pines. We find these bugs squeezing into every crack in the Fall, and in the Winter they pop out of the walls and have a slow motion stroll round the house. In our first house, a drafty farmhouse we rented, they accumulated mercilessly in the pink guestroom sink. Our permahouse (#3) is a little less buggy--maybe they're not so fond of hemlocks. I'm so glad to know who they are! Thanks.

Pamela Martin said...

We have conifers too, but we are never really invaded by these guys--just an occasional visit. Not that they don't have access--we have plenty of gaps, and are invaded by ash-leafed maple bugs, ladybugs and millipedes at times.

But the traffic I get from people searching for this bug makes me think lots of people get lots of them in the house in the fall.