Assassin Bug Nymph

#5550  My name is Mark and I found this thing crawling on my wife’s blouse in the house this morning. We live in Franklin county Va.

This is a nymph of an assassin bug (Hemiptera/Heteroptera: Reduviidae) in the genus Zelus. These are general predators on other small arthropods, and thus usually considered as beneficial. See http://tinyurl.com/l8zgevk for more detailed information.   Ed Saugstad, retired entomologist; Sinks Grove, WV.