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Project Noah Nature School
Very gorgeous insect! Its coloration is golden yellow, brown, and black, which gives it perfect camouflage in the goldenrod inflorescence that it hides in. From the top down it is hourglass shaped. From a side view you can that it has two jagged edges that poke up from the top. It has a really interesting looking orange-brown eye. My guess is that it has exceptional vision. Also worth noting are its front legs. They are enlarged and have a hook at the very end. They use this hook to catch prey many sizes larger than itself.
Found on flowering plants, mostly goldenrod.
Very cool insect. It gets its name by how it hunts for its prey. Using their strong camouflage they sit and wait on top of the flowers of goldenrod for pollinators such as bees or butterflies. When an unsuspecting pollinator does come by it uses its strong fore legs and hooked foot to grab hold of the insect as it bites down and injects digestive fluids. It will then suck out the juices from the exoskeleton leaving behind an empty shell of its prey.
Spotted on Sep 24, 2013
Submitted on Sep 24, 2013
3 Comments
Hey Cindy,
The reason why I put it in the unidentified section was because I am not sure what the scientific name is. I have been looking over the internet and there have been multiple scientific names given to this one. I was hoping that someone could help me out with that.
TH
Great, complete series of photos, information, references and video! Would you please add the scientific name so it's removed from the unknown list? Thank you :)
Very nice video.