100 More Species #51: Stilt bug

[urbpan]

Stilt bug Jalysus spinosus or wickhami

This creature forces me to realize that I consider the idea of an omnivorous insect to be weird or aberrant. Most insects you can name are specialists: bees and butterflies feed on nectar, termites eat wood, mantids are predatory, fleas and lice eat blood. But many ant species are omnivorous, as are earwigs and cockroaches. Most insects have specialized mouthparts adapted for eating their particular foodstuff: a strawlike tongue for nectar, chewing jaws for wood, ripping jaws for insect flesh, and cruel needles for blood; omnivores usually have generalized chewing mouthparts to feed on stuff that's easy to come by and doesn't run away. True bugs, like the stilt bug, have mouthparts shaped like a pointed beak, which they jab into their food to drink the juice inside. Cicadas, aphids, western conifer seed bugs, and so on drink from plants. Assassin bugs, ambush bugs, and wheel bugs drink from animals--usually other insects, though there are some that feed on vertebrate blood. According to bugguide.net, stilt bugs feed on a variety of plants including tomatoes, pumpkins, and evening primrose--but also on moth eggs. "Survival is much higher when animal food is available."

There are two species of stilt bug in this genus that could be in my yard. "[T]he two may occupy the same habitats, are extremely closely related and often confused (the only reliable way to tell them apart is to see the shape of the male genital capsule, visible on ventral views only)"