Today I encountered one of the most gaudy, clown-like of all the unusual insects I have seen along Piney Woods Church Road. When first I saw it among the branches of a roadside weed, it had its proboscis down, and looked like it was feeding on the juices of the plant. I assumed it was a harmless, brightly-colored herbivore of some kind. When I zoomed in on the digital image, though, I discovered that it was actually feeding on some sort of insect larva, possibly a tiny caterpillar. After inadvertently interrupting its breakfast, the insect began wandering the plant, and I embarked on a micro-safari, photographing it as it did so. After a few minutes of this, I continued on my way. Returning to the same weed twenty minutes later, I found it again an a different branch, and photographed it yet again.
I suspected that a bug so non-conventionally attired would be easy to find in an online search. Indeed, all it took was “bug black and white striped legs” to retrieve dozens of other images of it. The insect is almost certainly an Orange Assassin Bug nymph, Pselliopus barberi. In keeping with the account of this bug in the National Wildlife Federation’s Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America, it was occupying an open habitat near a woodland edge. “They are active from late spring through fall, when they hunt for insects during the day on shrubs and herbaceous undergrowth.” In the middle photo, the Orange Assassin Bug appears to be stalking a small aphid near the bottom of the image, having had its breakfast (top photo) so rudely interrupted by a nosy photographer.
