Ambush Bugs Can Sit For Hours While Waiting For Tasty Prey To Approach
While most people may not be particularly interested in the study of insects, there are certain unique insect species that capture the fascination of people all over the world. Sometimes a particular insect species will become well known among the public due to an insect’s bizarre appearance. For example, during recent years, several insect enthusiasts have spotted interesting looking insects in the wild only to later post a picture of their insect discovery to a social media website. Instances such as these have become common, and it could be said that social media is helping to foster an interest in insects among otherwise uninterested groups of people. Not long ago a Reddit user started a mass debate concerning the true identity of a mysterious and strange looking, colorful insect found in Asia. Also, several Facebook and Twitter users have posted pictures of their insect-related artworks, and lately the internet has been blowing up over the extremely violent, but fascinating predatory behaviors that are exhibited by assassin bugs. Any bug with the word “assassin” in its name cannot be friendly. There exists many types of assassin bug species that belong to Heteroptera family. One such species is known as “the ambush bug”. Despite the ambush bug’s tiny size, they can defeat just about any insect that they cross paths with.
Ambush bugs are well camouflaged within the flora of their native habitats, especially sunflowers. These insects prefer to sit in waiting for their enemies as opposed to actively hunting them. Like many other assassin bug species, the ambush bug is not a picky eater as it will happily lunge at and eat any insect that approaches their territory.
When these bugs locate prey, they will insert their super sharp mouthparts into their prey’s body before sucking all of their insides out. As far as human attitudes go, ambush bugs can be helpful to plant cultivators, but disastrous as well. These bugs will quickly kill sap-sucking insect pests, but their indiscriminate tastes in prey will also lead them to eat insects that are beneficial to vegetation. Amazingly, these half inch long predatory insects can consume other fierce predatory insects, such as bumblebees and even wasps.
Have you ever heard of any insect species that is known for preying upon nearly all insect species?
