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Photo by pamsai

Published on Project Noah

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9.73509, -82.8375

Field Notes

Description:

This is the second of 3 unusual flag-footed bugs I found in the Cahuita National Park, just before sunset. I returned the next morning, but they were nowhere to be seen, though there were several the evening before.

I wonder if the first one I posted might be the adult of this one... And the following one might be a younger version with flags on all 6 legs. This one has faint flags on the middle pair of legs, and they both have a white line on the antennae.

Habitat:

Beach-fronted National Park and Marine reserve. Tropical and very humid.

This site has 1067.9 hectares in land area, 600 ha in coral reef and 22,400 hectares of marine area, home to one of the best-developed coral reefs in the Caribbean and more importantly coast of Costa Rica. It also protects a sample of swampy forest with pure stands of raffia (Arecaceae) and Sangrillo (Fabaceae), as well as a great diversity of epiphytes and very humid forest remnants, typical of this area of life and white sandy beaches of great scenic beauty.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (12)

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Yes Leuba, quite a treat, and Torsten has done a really good job researching it. Seems it is a new species and maybe even a new genus.

Missed this one Pam - very special. Well done , you must be so pleased !

thanks tmvdh for all your research into this bug and for discovering that it's a new and undescribed species. Very happy to contribute...

Definitely a new and undescribed species! I wrote a scientific paper about it which has been published recently. Thanks again, Pam!

except that it doesn't have the same shaped head and that long curved proboscis, Dean...

Dean Engelbrecht

Looks very similar to an Assassin Bug

Very likely the same species...

thanks tmvdh... what about picture 3 ?

Definitely a nymph of the same species as the adult shown in the other photo.

That's what I originally thought, but I asked a fellow in the park and he said he thought they were different. I do think they are various instars.

Sergio Monteiro

LIke this one, I didn't. But I think that they CAN be different stages of the same bug. They can change a lot from an instar to the other.

Seen anything like this before, Sergio? Any thoughts on whether they might be related?

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