Assassin bugs are preyed upon by a wide variety of different birds, frogs, lizards, snakes, and small mammals. In order to defend themselves, they can deliver a very painful bite that may be aggravated by venom or digestive fluids within their saliva. To discourage predators, they can rub ...
Getty Images/iStockphoto Why You Should Avoid Wheel Bugs While Wheel bugs are not aggressive and will try to avoid contact with humans, there are times where you might get too close to one and they feel threatened. They will then attack you like they do their prey, and the outcome is n...
(1 to 1.5 inches); thenymphis red with black marks. Wheel bugs occur in North America, are predaceous on other insects, and have a painful bite if handled. The venomous saliva is pumped into a victim through a channel in the wheel bug’s beak. The digested body fluids of the prey ...
Venom has evolved multiple times among animals [1–3], and the scope of venomous animal groups whose venom biochemistry has been examined is ever-expanding, having recently grown to encompass such animals as the platypus [4], centipedes [5], assassin bugs [6,7], and polychaete worms [8]....