I have a few of these but I have not found any information on it. Does anyone know if it is a good guy or bad. Thanks, Bill
The above is in one of the tribes of the leaf-footed bugs, closer to a squash bug, a pest of vegetable plants.
Not an assassin bug.
Richard, Iâm pretty sure thatâs a plant bug, but I canât remember exactly what type.
The bug on Speedâs skin is definitely an assassin bug. We get a lot of those here.
As an aside Iâd to see someone start a weed identification thread. Of course it would be regional, but Iâm sure there are some folks out there who are cracker jacks on weeds.
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Someone over at BugGuide.net confirmed Larryâs reply, it is Catorhintha apicalis aka Squash Bug. It is a âvegetarianâ although Iâve yet to locate any information on crop damage for this species.
I thought this was leaf footed bugâŚ
Looks like a Lacewing to me. Another one of the âGood Guysâ:
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Thanks Patty. This aphid madness on my Flavor Supreme is attracting all kinds of beneficials. And I didnât release any of them!
It turns out that the name refers not to a single species, nor a single genus, but an entire family of true bugs: Family Coreidae - Leaf-footed Bugs.
This is a leather bug. Coreoidea
You are correct. Leaf-footed Bugs (Family Coreidae) are a subset of Leatherbugs (Superfamily Coreoidea).
My squash bugs are grey/blue grey filled with green juice, my squash!
According to BugGuide, there are 88 species in 33 genera north of Mexico alone. Sorry to hear theyâre eating your squash. It appears that out here the particular species I saw (Catorhintha apicalis) likes to dine on local weeds (e.g., dandelion) more than imported crops.
My bad⌠I should have known that. Itâs been a while since I took entomology 
I never did 
Showoff 
So just a google researcher then? Itâs hard to ID a lot of beetles and true bugs to more than family without picture keys, but online there are a lot of great pictures if you can know the general direction of where to look.
Now flies on the other hand are completely impossible to ID. If you want particular species, you have to, in some cases, literally try and count the hairs on their legs.
IDing both plants and insects is something I enjoy. I love taking a walk on our property with my little field guides. It also has you take a closer look at things, which often times leads me to those âoh cool!â moments.
I have a network of resources including the UC crop pest guides, a few entomologists who work in agriculture, and when all else fails I ask for ID on BugGuide.net. If you provide a good picture and the information requested on the form, an entomologist at a field station in your region will likely respond.
Thatâs pretty awesome! I know the big thing in Michigan has been the spotted wing Drosphilia and the Marmorated stink bug. Iâm sure that the research continues on all of the others as well, but those are the two that have been in the headlines here.
I know Michigan State does a bunch with ag pests in general. We got to visit the lab of someone who was an alum of Kalamazoo College, and now is working at State on their PhD. He was doing potato beetles and tracking how to most effectively apply pesticides, as well as mating disruption by measuring their activity at certain times (e.g. degree days). Pretty interesting stuff, not to mention incredibly important.
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