# Identify this insect seen in mediterranean regions
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 30, 2007, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157 "2007-04-30T14:39:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/1 "2007-04-30T14:39:20Z")
When I was a small boy, I lived in Cyprus - there was a type of insect we used to call ‘ladybird ants’ (‘ladybird’ is a British synonym for ‘ladybug’, BTW). They were about the size of a largish ant, but had flattish red-brown wings (or wing cases) with a red spot on each of them. As far as I know, we invented the term ‘ladybird ant’ ourselves, so that doesn’t help in identifying them. They were often seen emerging in some numbers from holes in the ground.
On a recent holiday to Spain, I saw them again - just a couple this time, and this time I looked a bit closer (but probably not close enough). Anyway, they look like they’re some kind of slender beetle or possibly true bug. They were walking amongst ants on an ant trail and were unmolested by them - I think this may indicate that they are parasitic or commensal in some way upon the ant colony.
Can anyone identify these insects from the details I’ve given here?
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### Author:  [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/2 "2007-04-30T16:50:55Z")
Sounds like young queens going out on their first, and last journey.
The timing is interesting, ant queens of a particular type all leave the nest on the same few days, the vasr majority become food for just about all insectivores, but the sheer numbers that take to the air at one time allows a few to survive and start colonies.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/3 "2007-04-30T18:19:00Z")
I don’t think they were ants - the wings were opaque with red and black markings and they seemed more like weevils or bugs in their gait and body shape. I’ve seen mating flights of ants this sort of size before and these things looked quite different.
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### Author:  [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/4 "2007-04-30T18:49:12Z")
Do the wing cases reach the tip of the abdomen, or are they short? If the latter, I’d wonder if they were some sort of myrmecophilic staphylinid beetle.
Interestingly, there are rare reports of myrmecophilic coccinellids (ladybugs).
You don’t happen to have any pictures, do you?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/5 "2007-04-30T20:06:54Z")
I don’t have any pictures, sadly. The resemblance to ladybugs was only superficial; the wing cases or possibly wings themselves were held flat (i.e. they did not enclose the body) and horizontal, but drawn back over the abdomen, as in houseflies.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/6 "2007-04-30T20:12:45Z")
[This](http://vorort.bund.net/suedlicher-oberrhein/gfx/callistus_lunnatus.jpg) picture is quite close, but it’s my impression that the wing cases were flatter - more like actual wings - giving the insect a more angular appearance
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/7 "2007-04-30T22:42:11Z")
Could they have been [maple bugs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_bug)? (Note that the coloration pattern can vary, though the colours themselves are always black and red.)
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/8 "2007-04-30T22:44:29Z")
That’s quite similar too - except the tail end of the wings was quite flat and blunt.
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/9 "2007-04-30T22:45:44Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut]
Could they have been [maple bugs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_bug)? (Note that the coloration pattern can vary, though the colours themselves are always black and red.)
[/QUOTE]
That maple bug looks a lot like a box elder bug. [http://www.pestcontrolcanada.com/INSECTS/box\_elder\_bugs.htm](http://www.pestcontrolcanada.com/INSECTS/box_elder_bugs.htm)
We get scads of these. They are one of the few bugs that don’t bother me. One or two manage to stay alive in the house year round. I don’t know how they’re getting in or how to get rid of them.
D’oh! Maple bug is another word for Box Elder Bug. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/10 "2007-04-30T22:48:26Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
D’oh! Maple bug is another word for Box Elder Bug. :smack:
[/QUOTE]
Indeed - Box Elder is a species of Maple.
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2007, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/11 "2007-04-30T22:54:55Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
Indeed - Box Elder is a species of Maple.
[/QUOTE]
My boy used to call them “bugzelda bugs” when he was little. Cracked me up.
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### Author:  [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/12 "2007-05-02T00:22:30Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
I don’t have any pictures, sadly. The resemblance to ladybugs was only superficial; the wing cases or possibly wings themselves were held flat (i.e. they did not enclose the body) and horizontal, but drawn back over the abdomen, as in houseflies.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve been trying to locate representative images of staphylinids, but their diversity of body form makes it difficult at best! 🙂
Did it resemble [this](http://myrmecos.net/insects/Staph2.html) in general body shape (ignoring specifics of coloration for the moment), or were the wing cases longer?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2007, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/13 "2007-05-02T07:23:34Z")
Not really. the wings/wing cases described a sort of rounded triangle with the apex at the head and the base at the rear end.
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### Author:  [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/14 "2007-05-02T14:59:27Z")
APBs (All Purpose Bugs in Sicilian)
They walked, they burrowed, they flew.
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### Author:  [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect-seen-in-mediterranean-regions/402157/15 "2007-05-02T16:19:12Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
Not really. the wings/wing cases described a sort of rounded triangle with the apex at the head and the base at the rear end.
[/QUOTE]
Hmm. Do you recall whether or not the end of the abdomen protruded beyond the ends of the wings?
I’m coming up empty here (plus there’s not a huge number of images of myrmecophilic insects to link to), since your first “similar” image is of a carabid beetle (order Coleoptera) while the second (the maple or boxelder bug) is a rhopalid bug (order Hemiptera). That’s a pretty broad range of possibilities!
ETA: I’m more inclined to think it was a type of beetle, since I’m not aware of any myrmecophilic Hemiptera, but it’s certainly possible I’m wrong. I’ve been harping on staphylinid beetles since I think there’s a range of ant-associated species in that family, and other myrmecophilic beetles (e.g. limulodids) tend to be tiny and inconspicuously colored.