Assassin Bug visits our home

We have lots of bugs outside our home, I always am aware of this,

but when you see one on the move from ten feet away, you know he is special...

especially here in the Shenandoah Valley!

Our bugs are just not spectacularly huge around here...

though bugs are spectacular in general- so back off would-be-entomologists!!

Otherwise known as the "Wheel Bug"Here is some info I found about the species in VA.

You can probably see why they are called Wheel Bugs.

The little rounded and raised area on it's back looks like a wheel.

• They are known as one of the Assassin Bugs and are predatory throughout their lives, with nymphs eating tiny caterpillars and insects and adults sometimes consuming agricultural pests larger than themselves.


• It is a "monster" of the insect world.


• With its bizarre appearance and deadly beak, it is a dreaded foe of other insects.


• It spears its unfortunate prey with its sharp beak (more like a FANG!!) and sucks up the victim's body fluids.
  
• Wheel Bugs find a mate in autumn and the female lays a cluster of 40-200 tiny brownish bottle-shaped eggs on a twig and, sometimes after attacking and eating her mate, eventually dies.
  

Here is a better pic from the internet...

Fortunately, he did NOT assissinate anyone!