# Help identify this bug
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-this-bug/441520
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 16, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-this-bug/441520 "2008-03-16T02:58:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bob55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob55)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-this-bug/441520/1 "2008-03-16T02:58:48Z")
I’d title this “what kind of bug is this?” but I already asked that a few years back [house centipede](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=370567), I guess I should have minored in entomology! So, can anyone help me ID this bug I found in the garden center at Home Depot? I took a picture with my phone, and because I don’t pay the internet connection fees I took a picture of my phone with my digital camera 🙂
[bug in question](http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/2679/clipboard01eh4.jpg)
It was pretty big, about 1 inch long. I was thinking a cicada, but none are that coloring that I’ve seen. As a child I used to catch minnows, and there’d always be a black and white spotted one among the group, maybe black/white spots are some sort of recessive trait?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-this-bug/441520/2 "2008-03-16T03:44:56Z")
Looks to me like it could be some kind of [Arctiid moth](http://static.flickr.com/45/115573932_cb4e117252.jpg) (family Arctiidae). The one in the image seems to be a different species from yours.
It’s definitely not a cicada.
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2008, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-this-bug/441520/3 "2008-03-16T12:30:35Z")
Another vote for moth. They have big hairy featthery bulging heads, and cicada’s have bald heads. Also, cicada’s have clear wings, and this seems to be a more butterfly-like wing, as it is powdered and colored.
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### Author:  [@Bob55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob55)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-this-bug/441520/4 "2008-03-16T22:01:01Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri]
Looks to me like it could be some kind of [Arctiid moth](http://static.flickr.com/45/115573932_cb4e117252.jpg) (family Arctiidae). The one in the image seems to be a different species from yours.
It’s definitely not a cicada.
[/QUOTE]
I never thought of a moth because it didn’t look too fuzzy, but that is dead on! Thanks for the detective work!