100 Species #85: Jagged ambush bug

[urbpan]

These jagged ambush bugs, Phymata sp., are clinging to one of the stalks of goldenrod featured in an earlier entry.

Yes, yes, these ambush bugs appear to be gettin' in on. However, this insect is known to practice pre- and post-copulatory guarding behavior. In order to help ensure that he is the only male to fertilize the female, he'll cling to her back and deter other suitors. The female may not have even accepted this male yet, or maybe he's old news. I only stayed long enough to get the picture.

Jagged ambush bugs are lumpy and dense, with coloration that breaks up their outline. (The genus name means "tumorous.") They can be pretty hard to notice on a plant, hanging out near the flower. There they sit, motionless for as long as it takes, waiting for a pollinating insect of the right size (larger prey for the females, which are bigger than the males). Then they grab it with those inflated-looking front legs--"raptorial forelegs," a fun adaptation that has evolved in several species of true bugs, as well as in mantids--and suck out the goo inside with a beak-like "rostrum."