Bug identification help needed

[me_in_japan]

So, I found this flying around the garden today. I'm pretty certain it's more moth than anything else, but it has very un-mothlike wings, and was buzzing around sucking up juice from flowers. Anybody got any idea what it is? I'm just curious - I like bugs and I havent seen this chap before. He's about 2 inches long.

[The Underdweller]

No idea, but if you find out let me know! It looks a little like this Clearwing Hummingbird moth

http://www.birds-n-garden.com/snowberry ... moths.html

[me_in_japan]

Ahah! Indeed, that seems to be the chap right there. It says on te wiki page that there is a large variation in colours, so that would explain the red bit. It also says its native to north America and Canada. This one musta been hella lost...

*edit* actually, this un is the Asian variant, Cephanodes hylas. For those who care

Thanks, underdweller

[The Underdweller]

Glad I could help narrow the search! The Asian kind is prettier IMO

[job]

Very pretty. It must be nice to be in the Japanese countryside where you can see all those (pretty) bugs.

[me_in_japan]

Yeah, all those mukade and oosuzumebachi are lovely

Actually, as someone who is quite interested in bugs, it is nice to be able to see the interesting ones from time to time, especially coming from Scotland, which is fairly bug-free, comparatively speaking (at least in terms of size. Midges, otoh, there is no shortage of...

[AndrewGPaul]

I don't know; I had some weired tiger-striped ... thing ... in my car the other day. Not what I needed buzzing round my head when driving down the motorway at 60mph in the rain.

Thankfully not 50mm long, though!

[me_in_japan]

I had some weired tiger-striped ... thing ... in my car the other day...
Thankfully not 50mm long, though!

It wasnt a tiger, was it?

[me_in_japan]

incidentally, speaking of tiger striped things, I have these in my garden, too..



read the amusing (and sadly, accurate) article about em here:
http://www.cracked.com/article_15816_th ... world.html

Oh, and I have these, too:


although not in my house. No, I see one of these buggers around here and it'll be clobbering time. I had em a couple times in my old apartment, though. Fast as greased bloody lightning, so they are (they have to chase after and catch cockroaches, which amongst their other fine attributes like being most-likely-to-thrive-after-nuclear-apocolypse, are some of the fastest bugs in the world...)

PS - that is in no way my hand in that picture. No, that's some damnfool on the internet who thinks he's hard. Well, lemme tell you, he aint. He's just stupid.

[ashmie]

Dave that huge centipede is a Mukade and they are very very dangerous. I'm so glad that is not your hand. They bite and are poisonous.