Toebiter

Subject:  scary big beetle in Utah
Geographic location of the bug:  Orem Utah
Date: 04/06/2021
Time: 08:44 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman:  This is the biggest beetle I have ever seen in Utah. I would have thought it was a kind of cockroach but we don’t have cockroaches this far north in Utah. I poked it with a big zip tie, to see if it was alive, and it was. The zip tie made the beetle look small in the picture but the zip tie is just really big. The beetle is approximately 2 and 1/8th or 1/4th  inches long. it has two big pinchers, or legs I can’t tell, when it was resting the pincher/legs were in front of it, and when I poked it lifted its self off the ground and held them up as seen here in the picture.
How you want your letter signed:  Addy Miller

Toebiter

Dear Addy,
This is not a Beetle but it is the largest True Bug in North America, the aquatic Giant Water Bug or Toe-Biter.  They are alleged to have a very painful bite and more than one swimmer has encountered a Toe-Biter while wading, justifying the common name.  Though clumsy on land, they are quite agile while swimming and catching prey like small fish and tadpoles as well as other insects, and when their ponds dry out, they are capable of flying great distances in search of more standing water.

The post Toebiter appeared first on What's That Bug?.