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Photo#244735
Small Milkweed Bug nymph in California - Lygaeus kalmii

Small Milkweed Bug nymph in California - Lygaeus kalmii
Webb Canyon, ~2000 ft. altitude, Los Angeles County, California, USA
June 12, 2008
I believe this is a Lygaeus kalmii nymph because the black markings seem to be a perfect match. However, the coloration is not what I am used to seeing (i.e., the abdomen is usually described as being solid red, not striped as in this specimen). I searched through the images of Heteroptera and found these similar looking candidates along with at least one attached comment speculating as to the likelihood of a variation in patterning for the Small Milkweed Bug nymphs. Anyone care to speculate further? Have you seen this variation in your local populations?


Moved
Moved from nymphs.

I am going to let the owners of the other nymph images referenced in this post draw their own conclusions, but I am now thoroughly convinced that my image is indeed an L. kalmii nymph. I have spent quite some time observing the very large population of this species around the pool area at my house. The only adult lygaeids that I have recorded from this area in the last several years in large numbers are L. kalmii and O. fasciatus, as well as an isolated sighting of M. rubicollis. The sheer numbers of nymphs that I am seeing with this exact same patterning, leads me to believe that the adult population must also be numerous. Sadly, the nymphs of this species don't seem to huddle in aggregations with the adults as is so frequently seen with the Large Milkweed Bugs, or it might be significantly easier to draw connections between the parents and juveniles. Still, I maintain my certainty that this coloration is typical of the L. kalmii nymphs (at least on my property).

 
I agree
I agree that your image is L. kalmii nymph. I also moved my image to species page; I believe that it is the same species. Thanks for the follow-up.

Moved
Moved from Seed Bugs.

Moving...
Even though I still feel fairly certain that this is a Small Milkweed Bug nymph (primarily because my property hosts such an abundant population of that species in the area where I found this one), I am going to go ahead and move this to the Lygaeus page because of the interesting discussion which is attached regarding the possibility of discovering other as of yet unidentified species of Lygaeus.

EDIT: OOPS! Just saw that someone had already moved the image... never mind my comment.

I'd also say small milkweed bug nymph.
You've shown my second above. I identified it based on my first IDed nymph:

The diagonal black markings on the "shoulders" are, I think, diagnostic. My two look like sort of a progression into yours, losing color en route.

I have noticed a lot of difference in adults, but attributed it to regional variation. Generally, I don't see many of these critters, immature or adult.

 
I thought the markings were diagnostic too...
...I only hesitated because all the other examples seemed to have raised a question mark and remain unidentified. As to the frequency of sightings for this species, you need to come up and visit my place -- we have a more than abundant population most of the year! (Although I have only seen a scattered few with this recent bout of cold weather...)

 
The question marks occur because
there seem to be a number of species of Lygaeus in the southwest US. It would be great if you could also post some adult images, especially of ones that don't look like kalmii! As we gather more images, the experts should be able to sort these out.

 
Adult
My image of nymph is the third one in line above. Just today, I posted an adult image that seems to be off color. I speculated that it may be the variety of Milkweed plants or lack of necessary nutrition that is causing this issue. Now, I am more hopeful that there may be some answers forthcoming.

Edit: Feedback received on this adult image is a consensus that this was a freshly molted L. kalmii whose normal coloration develops quickly after molting. I would love to know if the same holds true for nymphs - does their coloration develops quickly after molting?

 
j & j, I just posted my entire adult collection.
sparse tho it may be.

 
Nice! Those certainly look
like kalmii to us too. Let's see what else folks post.

 
I'm in the process...
...of looking through all my images. Unlike Ron, I have lots and lots of them, so it might take a little while. So far, everything is looking like L. kalmii though. Just so that people know what kind of thing to be looking for in the adult variants, here's an example of what looks like a Small Milkweed Bug, but as you can see the "heart shape" on the back is partially red where normally it is all black.



In the post referenced above, John Maxwell comments that BugGuide is still missing 3 species of Lygaeus, and J & J are also stating that there are undocumented species. Can someone give the names of the species in question? It might help me (and others) out in the search to document them.

 
Thanks Ted and J&J...
... I should have looked at the genus Info page before asking, sorry about that.

 
Here's the Nearctica list
and two very different looking specimens.

Lygaeus Fabricius 1794

Lygaeus kalmii Stål 1874 (Lygaeus)
Lygaeus reclivatus Say 1825 (Lygaeus)
Lygaeus truculentus Stål 1862 (Lygaeus)
Lygaeus trux Stål 1862 (Lygaeus)
Lygaeus turcicus Fabricius 1803 (Lygaeus)
[Lygaeus nugatoria Kelso 1937 Unav.]

and

 
Different looking specimens
Yes, I believe that the first image is misplaced. It looks like Lygaeus turcicus.

 
OK, now I am officially very CONFUSED...
...to me this photo looks exactly like all of the bugs that I see and photograph around my area and have been calling L. kalmii. When I look at the representative images in the Guide for L. turcicus they don't look at all like this one. What am I missing here? Which specific markings are sending up a red flag that this is NOT a Small Milkweed Bug?

 
Actually, I may be the confused one
Actually, I may be the confused one. I just re-read the Identification section of Lygaeus turcicus species page. According to those comments the above image that I showed as thumbnail is not L. turcicus. Sorry for the confusion.

 
Yes, not turcicus,
but much more black and less red than commonly seen on kalmii, though it may still be kalmii, which is how it has been identified (so far!). Our point is that not knowing how different the species are, we don't know what constitutes kalmii vs other. But we hope to learn! Check out the image Chuck posted to

 
Yes, difficult to ID
I suspect that there are more than one species on L. kalmii page. We may even have one of the 51 species of Lopidea. :) Pertaining to Chuck's post, Colorado State has the only photo of L. reclivatus that I could find, IF that ID is correct. This is very intriguing and I hope to learn as well.

 
All Nearctic species
All Nearctic species are documented at the genus page.

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