Unidentified Insect - Anyone know what this could be?

Hello fellow ATSer's!

Long story short, the previous version of this thread became derailed, so this new one was created to get straight to the point

Just over a year ago, this insect fell or flew onto my dining table (the room has a sliding door which was open all the way too, just for reference that it could have come from outside). I managed to take a picture of the insect, place it on a tissue, and take another picture of it. These are the two pictures I have included here. Not long afterward, I either bumped the table and the insect fell onto the carpet, or it flew away (this is purely a guess as I have no idea whether it can fly or not). While I am not too sure exactly how it got away, the bottom line is that I was never able to find it again. I could have looked more thoroughly at the carpet but small pebble-like objects are very easily camouflaged in the carpet and I gave up quite quickly. Not to mention I'm not a big fan of insects, especially freaky looking black ones the shape of a dinosaur! At that time I thought it was most likely a recently-born deformed insect, so I wasn't too fussed about letting it go.

However every now and again I do think about it being something else though, which has brought me here to make a thread about it. The pictures aren't clear so I don't expect any conclusive evidence, but I have no other choice because at the time I only had an old camera phone with no options except a 'capture' button. When I went really close to the insect (it was only slightly bigger than an ant), the insect just looked really blurry on the camera screen. It was a toss up between having unclear but close-up pictures of the insect or clearer but distant pictures. I chose the former because I figured the camera's clarity was bad anyway so distant pictures would make the insect look as good as a dot. And most importantly I wanted to capture the definition of the insect's shape, because its shape intrigued me the most.

So now I'll just briefly describe what I saw, and then you can make up your own mind about what it could be. At first I thought it was a small rock, coincidentally in the shape of a Dino or turtle, but when I looked closer I saw that it was breathing (or at least a very tiny mouth opening and closing) and it was also moving very slowly at times. I was then convinced it was alive, but I had never seen anything like it before so I was dumbfounded. The color of the insect was black, very dark colored all around, and the shape was very distinct. The skin surface of the insect seemed to be a solid-one-piece or rock-like insect rather than slimy (hence why I thought it was a small rock or twig initially) and this is another reason why it reminds me more of something like a dinosaur or turtle rather than a snail or beetle (as they have antennae sticking out of them and might even have multi-layered bodies).

Anyway, here are the pics:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fdb9294b552d.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a75aeea4d171.jpg[/atsimg]

Thanks for looking! Please only post if you have a sensible response

Your pictures are really blurry, but it could be some sort of horned beetle. But I am not sure.

Or it could be some sort of snail.

Plastic Brontosaurus toy?

Or possibly dung beetle but it's tenuous.

It looks 99.9% like the Bronto toy.....

Is this a joke??
And I could have swore I've seen this before...like 3days ago.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Yes! The user already posted these pictures.
Some people just can't answers. Sarcasm aside, I believe the OP is trolling.

If its not a toy than it's a dung beetle imo.

Go youtube some vids on it.

Dung beetles belong to the Scarabaeidae family of beetles. There are 4,500 species worldwide, with most found in Africa where they have evolved with large herbivores such as buffalo and elephants. There are approximately 300 native species in Australia

link

Dung beetles are strong fliers and can fly several kilometres in one flight. Species fly either during daylight hours (day fliers) or at dusk and dawn (night fliers). They can detect dung from a considerable distance by its smell, and fly upwind along an odour plume to the dung. They fly to fresh dung once they have depleted their current pad. When stocking rates are low or cattle are regularly moved dung beetles may need to fly considerable distances to find fresh dung.

So add in modern transportation systems and you have dung beetles just about anywhere. It says they can fly for very long distances in just one flight.

I still think it resembles a toy brontosaurus more though.
Maybe if it is a beetle it's super blurry.

If the 4000+ species of dung beetles aren't good enough try this.
Typed horn beetle into google...

Originally posted by muzzleflash
If its not a toy than it's a dung beetle imo.

Go youtube some vids on it.

Dung beetles belong to the Scarabaeidae family of beetles. There are 4,500 species worldwide, with most found in Africa where they have evolved with large herbivores such as buffalo and elephants. There are approximately 300 native species in Australia

link

Dung beetles are strong fliers and can fly several kilometres in one flight. Species fly either during daylight hours (day fliers) or at dusk and dawn (night fliers). They can detect dung from a considerable distance by its smell, and fly upwind along an odour plume to the dung. They fly to fresh dung once they have depleted their current pad. When stocking rates are low or cattle are regularly moved dung beetles may need to fly considerable distances to find fresh dung.

So add in modern transportation systems and you have dung beetles just about anywhere. It says they can fly for very long distances in just one flight.

I still think it resembles a toy brontosaurus more though.

Maybe if it is a beetle it's super blurry.

If the 4000+ species of dung beetles aren't good enough try this.
Typed horn beetle into google...

edit on 21-10-2010 by muzzleflash because: +

Hmm I had a look at pictures of beetles, and if I'm not wrong, they look a lot bigger than the insect I saw. To put into perspective what I saw, look at the white thing that looks like a bed sheet in the 2nd picture - it is actually just a small tissue. The insect was tiny and I had to put the camera right up in front of it, hence the bad quality. Although it could possibly have been a newly born or baby beetle if they were this size. But still, beetles don't really seem to have the curved-outwards-and-up thin neck that made this insect look so unique.

And I agree with you completely when you say it looks like a toy brontosaurus, which is why I have been so curious about this insect ever since I saw it. It was definitely too small to be a toy though, and when I looked close at it I could see it slowly move. And that's why this is so weird.

For gods sakes would you guys look at the picture before you say stupid things? It's not a dung beetle and the OP isn't trolling. Just because you are ignorant on a topic and don't want to add to the discussion and just criticize doesn't mean you should. You should have some manners. Think outside the box if you don't know what it is then you don't know what it is. I'm so sick of that attitude here on ATS. You don't even think before you speak.




Possibly a horned fungus beetle

Just so you know beetles can fly and it most likely did just fly away.

it does kind of look like a mini-dinosaur/loch ness monster

To be honest that is about as good as most of the UFO pics that fly around. It is a very high quality blurry pic that can only lead to speculation.

reply to post by fluffy


horrable photo but here my guess



looks to me like a Solder bug

That picture is very blurry but looks like a boll weevil to me.

....Dried up big bloody booger ????

Originally posted by jessieg
That picture is very blurry but looks like a boll weevil to me.

Yeah I think it looks similar in shape to one of those, maybe it could be a baby one of them?
I guess there won't be too many pictures around of beetles just being born or young beetles to compare it with, but it is a strong possibility.

Originally posted by Shadowed
For gods sakes would you guys look at the picture before you say stupid things? It's not a dung beetle and the OP isn't trolling. Just because you are ignorant on a topic and don't want to add to the discussion and just criticize doesn't mean you should. You should have some manners. Think outside the box if you don't know what it is then you don't know what it is. I'm so sick of that attitude here on ATS. You don't even think before you speak.




Possibly a horned fungus beetle

Just so you know beetles can fly and it most likely did just fly away.

edit on 21/10/10 by Shadowed because: addition

Thanks for your input, much appreciated.

Yeah you're probably right, it's likely that it just flew away. Although I'm still not entirely convinced that it was a beetle because to me it looked more like a tiny turtle or dino rather than a beetle. But then again I'm not an expert in the field of insects and the insect was too small and dark to see any much detail.

Hmm the horned fungus beetle seems to have 2 horns but the insect I saw only had one thing protruding from its body. It seemed centered in a way that makes me think that there was not another horn growing or had snapped off, although this could still be a possibility. I also thought it was more like a neck rather than a horn because something was opening and closing at the tip of it, and I thought that was a mouth. Although if I think about it, it could also have just been a nose or some sort of opening to let in air, or I guess it could have even been two pieces so close together that made it look like one piece. So you may be right there.

Originally posted by yoesse
To be honest that is about as good as most of the UFO pics that fly around. It is a very high quality blurry pic that can only lead to speculation.

You have to remember that I had the camera phone up so close to the insect that it was almost touching it, and therefore the picture is quite blurry. The insect was tiny. There were no other settings on the phone too so that was the best I could get. I also wouldn't say it was high quality as it is only a 640 x 480 pic, but then I guess there are worse quality pictures than that.

reply to post by fluffy


There are a ton of insect varieties out there. I figured that there was only 1 horn however, the best I culd come up with was the fungus beetle. If you could give a general location (other than "Mars" J/K HEHE) I may be able to help you even more. There are also weevils as someone mentioned, but the curve seemed in the wrong direction for a weevil.

Well I lost my Weevil Picture...grrrr!!!




I was thinking immediately of a Thorn Mimic Tree Hopper but didn't have the time to look into it. I did now though.




I think the Thorn Mimic is the most likely culprit.

Originally posted by Shadowed
reply to post by fluffy

 

There are a ton of insect varieties out there. I figured that there was only 1 horn however, the best I culd come up with was the fungus beetle. If you could give a general location (other than "Mars" J/K HEHE) I may be able to help you even more. There are also weevils as someone mentioned, but the curve seemed in the wrong direction for a weevil.

Well I lost my Weevil Picture...grrrr!!!

I was thinking immediately of a Thorn Mimic Tree Hopper but didn't have the time to look into it. I did now though.




I think the Thorn Mimic is the most likely culprit.

edit on 21/10/10 by Shadowed because: addition

edit on 21/10/10 by Shadowed because: image collapse

edit on 21/10/10 by Shadowed because: New Weevil Pic hopefully this one doesn't disappear

Wow, good find The insect does seem to resemble a Thorn Mimic Tree Hopper.

The picture of the insect was taken over a year ago in New Zealand, I wonder if they are known to live there? Didn't know there would be such weird looking insects in New Zealand

reply to post by fluffy


Considering how common Thorn mimics are and how abundant life is there I would have to say that indefinitely there are Thorn mimic insects there!!!

reply to post by Shadowed


I think I agree with you, it does look like your thorn mimic picture. Good job!

check out this vid. I believe the bug you are searching for may be the second one shown here. I was watching this and remembered your thread. Hope it helps.



unfortunately they don't name the insect, but it looks incredibly like a tiny brontosaurus/brachiosaurus.