h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Blister beetle! They exude an irritating fluid when threatened.

Ah ha! Nothing will eat me! I've adapted to look like the strongest chilli ever attempted to be eaten

On Twitter Jez (Old Dog, Old Tricks) writes:

'Soldier beetle. Trichodes alvearius. I should get a life...'

Sure looks like them, and France is in their range!

I stand corrected! But if a Trichodes, I think this one looks more like Trichodes apiarius.

Can you explain the difference? I got lost at 'apex of elytra'.

Trichodes apiarius.

yep! Looks like onebut it could also be a Dennis the Menace bug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us98PmAX714

Blister beetles are caustic if they get their spray on you. Ho can you keep them out of your garden? By getting rid of plants that attract them: Pigweed, Ironweed, and Ragweed.

But that applies to places where this particular Blister Beetle is in its range. In Massachusetts, there is only the black blister beetle, which is, well, black.

I have ragweed (or goldenrod) growing in my yard. I will just be careful and steer clear of it.

It means in apiarius the bottom tip of the 'shell' is black, while in alvearius it is red. But that's not visible in the photo so I go more by the shape of the black and red bands. They're horizontally symmetrical in apiarius but asymmetrical in alvearius. I'm just going by shots I can find, I'm not an expert on these things.

Thanks, Willem!

When I was 11yrs old, I went on a school trip holiday to Spain
Whilst there, I saw some "Colorado potato beetles" and knew what they could do, so I caught a good few and put them in a jar - to bring home and drop them in a field and then report them etc - as in a £££ reward
Alas! Being 11yrs oldwhen I got home, the "bugs" had died in the jar and I knew I couldn't get away with dead bugs in a field

Why would you have wanted potato bugs in a field anyway>

at that time, there was a £5 rewardif you saw one in a UK field at 11yrs old - I thought50 bugs X £5

But dead ones were worth less than five pounds?

50 dead ones and the "powers that be" would have smelt a ratcon!

Well, okay, you have me there.

So, what did you do with the dead bugs?

In your dialect - dumped in the trash-can

to us it's the dustbin

named after Dustbin Hoffman?

Can't say! I'm not racialist
If "they're" NOT Yorkshire, their foreigners saves a lot of time

Whose time, yours or theirs?

T'ain't mine