Drosophyllum Bug

[Parasuco]

Uh, I think I found an assasin bug... Seeing as how I live in Canada, is it feasible? This is the second one I found this year. The first one was dead in a water dish.

If this is it, how do I care for it? I dont have a drosophyllum...

I'm thinking of getting a jar, putting dirt in it, planting a weed or sumthing in it, and having a little moist sponge in there for it to drink from. I would put some stupid bugs in there... The ones that dont know you are gonna squash them. Like moths or those white flies that live for like two days... Caterpillars too, right?

Help?

 

[Pyro]

Parasuco,

Assasin's live all over the world so it is possible you found one. Umm... About the Drosophyllum, assasin's aren't associated with them, you are thinking Roridula

As for keeping it alive, that is easy, any species you find in N. Am is just going to be a hunter (only 2 or 3 species have the symbiote relation with Roridula I think) so all you have to do is supply it with something to eat. Shoot for something half the size of the assasin or smaller, just drop it into the jar/cage/whatever and let nature take its course.

Just a note, I have never heard of it North of the Gulf states but some species of assasin carry a really nasty parasite, called a Trypanosome, that causes Chaga's disease. While I doubt that your bug has it I still recommend that you don't let the bug bite you or feed off of your blood

Pyro

 

[Parasuco]

Oh... Roridula? Isnt that the devil's claw

Oh well, even better. Now I want a drosophyllum even more now that it can digest its own food, hehehe...

I'll try to keep it away from my blood... Will it eat me if i let it? How weird...

 

[Pyro]

Ibseala (I'm sure that isn't spelled right) is the Devil's claw.

Drosophyllum can be difficult and must be grown from seed, which can be a challenge to find. I keep loosing my seedlings and I'm not sure why

As for assasin's feeding on people, it happens all the time, usually on or around the lips while a person sleeps. This habit is the origin of their nickname "kissing bug"

 

[Parasuco]

Huh... I never heard roridula and ibsiala in the same sentence, so i figured that they were both the same plant... Not one plant with two names, I jus thought of the same plant when I heard either of their names - ibsiala...

Thats weird. I looked at a roridula picuture and i didnt know that that plant existed. Like i said before all i saw when i heard the name roridula was the ibsiala...

Funny stuff!

 

[Martin]

hmmmmm....

Devils claw :
- Ibicella lutea
- Proboscidea louisianica,
- P. louisianica subsp. fragrans    
- P. parviflora

You will find lots of pictures and information (in German, but you can use a translation tool) at http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Ansgar.M.Rahmacher/teufels.htm

Roridula (Don't know the English word) contains two different spezies
- R. dentata
- R. gorgonias

maybe you like to take a look at my page under http://www.drosophyllum.com/deutsch/roridula.htm where you can also find pictures from one of the Roridula-bugs, wghich I have in cultivation : Pameridea marlothii (the other one is P. roridulae)

This is one of my Roridula dentata :
another picture showing details : http://www.drosophyllum.com/Bilder/Roridula_d12.jpg

and this is my Drosophyllum lustanicum (btw, never transplant this plant, or it will die &#33

:
another picture showing details : http://www.drosophyllum.com/Bilder/Drosophyllum05.jpg

Martin

 

[Parasuco]

Thanks martin... Hehehe... I knew you'd see this post!!!

 

[Shauntell]

What is an assassin bug? I've never heard fo one before. are they big? Where do they live?

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Yep they sure are north of the Gulf states! I hav seen about 5-7 here in NY. I would prsonally feed it a variety of food. I would go with Caterpillars and other "soft-bodied" insects. And another note if you've never seen one try looking by a light at night, they're attracted to them. Shauntell: an assasin bug is a large beetle with a long pointy proboscus which is jams into other insects and sucks up their insides. They are usually brown-black with dull orange markings down the side or on thier belly.

 

[Martin]

Pameridea marlothii on Roridula gorginias :

 

[Pyro]

NepG,

When I said that I had "never heard of it North of the Gulf states" I was refering to Chaga's disease and not not the assassin's themselves

As for assassin's being beetles, that isn't quite accurate. They are actually part of the insect clade known as 'true bug' and are more closely related to thing like bed bugs and cockroaches

Shauntell,

You asked about size. Most of the ones you will see inside the States are onlu about 0.5-.75" of an inch although there is a species, know as the wheel bug, that can reach upward of 1.5" Some species in S. America can break the 3" mark.

Pyro