Assassin bug III

These are two photographs I am very happy about. Once more, it is showing an assassin bug. But look closely: this individual looks totally different than the previous ones (Animal portrait, January, 8 and Assassin bug II, January 27). The short wing stubs have grown into long wings. The beautiful yellow body has turned darker.

Is it possible that this is the same individual that I found two days prior to this one at the same spot in our passionfruit/vine trellis? Even the tentacles have a different colour. I assume this is a later instar and probably the end stage of the assassin bug.

This bug can obviously see quite well. And it doesn't like my flash. Through the thick leaf cover it was hard to get a good macro shot while it kept crawling away. And quite frankly, knowing about the pain, this animal's bite can cause, didn't exactly help my photographic efforts. Only later, I spotted that this assassin bug was probably on a hunt when I came and disturbed it. There was a well-camouflaged, motionless grasshopper nearby whose life I probably saved.

It is just great knowing that in our garden there seems to be a natural balance and that some pests have attracted their predators. We have got lots of butterflies too, a gardener's nightmare when they are caterpillars. Surely, the assassin bug helps to keep that population in check too.

When the assassin bug crawled further away from the lens and deep into the leaves, I was tempted to call it a day. Instead I pre-focussed on a leaf that the bug might eventually crawl back out onto. And yes, it gave me the shot that I was desperately hoping for: a side shot clearly showing the whole proboscis. It is the mouth piece that it uses as a weapon to inject the flesh eating liquid and to suck out its prey.

This may be the last series of assassin bug photos for a long time from me. It can only get better if I manage to photograph one that is feeding. But frankly, not exactly being a bug person, I am happy with what I have managed to document.

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