Name That Insect! (Malaysia version)

[Halx]

I know we love to play the ol' game of identifying strange insects, so let's begin! The following 3 insects are found in Malaysia. One is a beetle, one is an ant and one is a moth. Go!

Beetle: We found it in Kuala Lumpur. It was masquerading on Zkara's shawl as a pin. Luckily, she realized that it wasn't a pin.


Ant: We found it in a buddhist temple cave in Ipoh. It has 6 legs and 2 ferocious claws. It looks like it kicks other ants asses.





Moth: This thing looks like a harrier jet. Also found in a buddhist temple cave.

[Martian]

I'm trying mightily to peg the thing in the middle. I'm almost certain that it's not a true ant, but beyond that I have no idea.

EDIT - Revising my opinion. On closer examination I have realized that the 'ant' appears to have six legs in addition to the claws (which are modified forelegs). That moves it out of the hexapoda subphylum and therefore out of the insect family. It's an arthropod, but it doesn't appear to be an arachnid either (and is clearly not a myriapod). I'll keep looking.

[skier]

I don't see why it isn't an arachnid- or even a straight out spider.

Having two body segments, 8 limbs, it's eye grouping all suggest spider.

To me, it looks like a hunting/jumping spider with specialized forelimbs, these perhaps for a certain type of prey.

[Infinite_Loser]

Originally Posted by Martian

I'm trying mightily to peg the thing in the middle. I'm almost certain that it's not a true ant, but beyond that I have no idea.

When I first glanced at it, I thought it was a scorpion. It's not, though, as it's missing a metosoma (The tail portion).

[Martian]

Originally Posted by skier

I don't see why it isn't an arachnid- or even a straight out spider.

Having two body segments, 8 limbs, it's eye grouping all suggest spider.

To me, it looks like a hunting/jumping spider with specialized forelimbs, these perhaps for a certain type of prey.

It's not an arachnid because there aren't enough limbs.

Arachnids (confusingly enough) are characterized by having twelve limbs; eight for locomotion, two (known as the pedipalps) that that are typically specialized for defence or hunting and two more (known as chelicerae) specialized for feeding. This thing has a pair of pedipalps and I can almost make out what appear to be chelicerae, but it only has six locomotive legs. Hexapods, in contrast, are so named because (excluding wings) they only have six appendages, which means it's not one of them either.

It's possible that this is actually a subspecies of spider that's lost a pair of legs due to injury or misadventure. Otherwise, I just don't know.

EDIT - after spending more time than I care to admit trying to peg this, I'm forced to conclude that the most probable explanation is that this is, in fact, a jumping spider. The morphology doesn't seem quite right here, but the images are more than a little blurry; given that it's unlikely that Hal stumbled across an entirely new phylum of arthropod hiding out in Malaysia, the fault is most likely mine. The most likely explanation, then, is that what I initially assumed to be heavily modified pedipalps are instead heavily modified locomotors; thus, what I thought to be the chelicerae would actually be the pedipalps and I must be missing the chelicerae.

So, yeah. We'll go with jumping spider, probably an ant mimic, given that that was the initial identification.

For the record, your beetle is most likely a subspecies of scarab and the moth... well, there's literally thousands of different lepidopterae out there, but it's a fun little bird mimic.

[sadistikdreams]

The moth...

It has a freaking lobster tail.

What the fuck.

[Ustwo]

It has an arachnid like head and eyes, plus 6 legs and 2 modified legs.

I'm going with spider of some kind.

Its also a male.

It does look somewhat like a whip scorpion but the body shape isn't quite right.

[mrklixx]

The top one is Plagiometriona clavata (tortoise beetle)

http://bugguide.net/node/view/3021

[*Nikki*]

I LOVE the beetle!

[Martian]

Originally Posted by mrklixx

The top one is Plagiometriona clavata (tortoise beetle)

http://bugguide.net/node/view/3021

Thanks mrklixx for the id. Interestingly, it being a tortoise beetle means I was in the wrong subfamily; it's more closely related to a lady bug or weevil than a scarab.

Ustwo - there is no possible way that thing is a whip scorpion. I was actually thinking something more along the lines of a book scorpion initially (or at least that order, pseudoscorpionida), which matches the morphology except for the appendages. In order for those claws to be actual claws (ie, pedipalps) it would need two more locomotive legs that just aren't there. Thus, since we can label it as an arachnid on the basis of exclusion and it's not dromopoda (which includes the order scorpionida and it's relatives), I have to assume that it is in fact a spider and that either the photos or my eyes just aren't good enough for me to make out the chelicerae.

I wonder if anyone can peg the moth? I unfortunately am not at all knowledgeable regarding lepidopterae; frankly, they bore me.

[mrklixx]

I think the moth is a Hummingbird Hawkmoth (MACROGLOSSUM STELLATARUM)

http://tpittaway.tripod.com/sphinx/m_ste.htm

And it looks like the Jumping Spider guess was right on. It looks like it's part of the Dendryphantinae family.

http://tolweb.org/accessory/Salticid...uise?acc_id=63

[Sticky]

Originally Posted by mrklixx

http://tolweb.org/accessory/Salticid...uise?acc_id=63

"Bird dropping like"

haha

[Zeraph]

After my many years of nature watching I'm amazed that there's still new animals to see. Thanks for posting.

[abaya]

Try this website... they're really great at identifying weird bugs from pictures that people send in, just like you...

http://whatsthatbug.com/

[genuinegirly]

Wow, creepy! I wouldn't want that crazy guy on my shawl.

I'm pretty impressed that mrklixx and Martian can get so much from these photos.

[ritzy]

i think the moths quite cute

[ItWasMe]

Interesting bugs. Thanks for sharing you photos. How close to the "ant" was your camera in the last shot? It looks like it was coming after you.

[blktour]

fuzzy pix FTL!! was that with ur IPHONE??

cool bugs btw.