Red Team

Update: July 11, 2020 my entomology professor thinks this might be “a bug in another family. Perhaps Pyrrochoridae. Maybe Reduviidae. The body looks a little off for an assassin bug.”

I saw this guy last night while I was watering the garden. It’s a red assassin bug, an insect predator who is most welcome in my yard if it’s able (and I doubt it) to prey on the yellow-spotted millipedes (pictured below) that dominate during the wet season. The assassin bug was difficult to photograph because they move very fast (predator).

The interesting (and very annoying) thing about the yellow-spotted millipedes is they excrete cyanide when threatened and it smells like urea. They also crunch when stepped on, which is unavoidable during the wet season…

More info: iNaturalist