Phymata arctostaphylae - BugGuide.Net

Moved

Moved from Jagged Ambush Bugs.

… Ron M., 19 December, 2008 - 4:58am

Moved

Moved from Ambush Bugs.

… Eric R. Eaton, 18 December, 2008 - 3:14pm

Phymata arctostaphylae

Hi Eric! Just a few days ago we were able to ID this guy to species. How to move to a species name? Thanks in advance!

… Lynn Monroe, 18 December, 2008 - 4:31pm

Can you give any info on how it was IDed, or by who?

… John R. Maxwell, 19 December, 2008 - 7:05am

Phymata arctostaphylae identification

Took a long time to ID. You may notice we photographed it in 1998! Several years ago we took the photo to the San Diego Natural History Museum where we identified it as P. erosa. However, This name, which had three forms or subspecies, is not longer used.

Just recently Gene was thumbing through a 1914 article we had xeroxed because it described an unusual lygead, "A preliminary list of the Hemiptera of San Diego County, CA" by E. P. Van Duzee. In it he found the original description of P. erosa arctostaphylae! It obviously matched our bug in size, color including a bright red underside to the abdomen, localtion and plant associations. Then we got out of the library Evans "Revision of the Ambush Bugs" and everything keyed out there as well. Basically there are only three species of Phymata listed in the Henry and Froeschner Catalog of the Heteroptera or True Bugs, and there were no lookalikes described.

… Lynn Monroe, 19 December, 2008 - 6:06pm