Mystery insect bugging experts at London museum

July 15, 2008 By MEERA SELVA , Associated Press Writer Mystery insect bugging experts at London museum (AP)

In this undated image made available by Natural History Museum, showing the tiny red-and-black bug which is thought to be a new species of insect, and that has appeared inside London's Natural History Museum gardens, according to information made available Monday July 14, 2008. The almond-shaped insect, about the size of a grain of rice seems to thrive on plane trees at the grounds of the 19th-century museum, but this insect is not the same as any of the 28 million insects currently classified by the museum, "I don't expect to find a new species in the gardens of a museum," said Max Barclay, Collections Manager at the Natural History Museum.( AP Photo/Natural History Museum)

(AP) -- The experts at London's Natural History Museum pride themselves on being able to identify species from around the globe, from birds and mammals to insects and snakes. Yet they can't figure out a tiny red-and-black bug that has appeared in the museum's own gardens.

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Mercury_01 - Jul 15, 2008
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Its a beetle. Case closed, your welcome.
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Algaholic - Jul 15, 2008
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Definitely not a beetle. Looks like some kind of hemiptera.
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Mercury_01 - Jul 15, 2008
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1?!, are you telling me thats not a beetle?
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darvargus - Jul 15, 2008
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looks like a box elder bug
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Mercury_01 - Jul 15, 2008
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maybe its a land crab.
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darvargus - Jul 15, 2008
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maybe it cures cancer.
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Mercury_01 - Jul 15, 2008
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Maybe its causing global warming.
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Doug_Huffman - Jul 15, 2008
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Not a beetle's elytra. Arocatus roeselii resembles a Box Elder Bug hemipteran.
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brant - Jul 15, 2008
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Maybe aliens dropped it off.....
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Serpentus - Jul 16, 2008
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I've seen that bug.... or maybe it was a similar one??? I live in Chile, When I saw it I thought it was a "Vinchuca", even though it's similar, it's not a vinchucha, maybe the same family??? I hope physorg keeps track of this news
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Andragogue - Jul 16, 2008
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Looks like a boxelder bug (a true bug).

http://www.ext.co...522.html
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mjp - Jul 19, 2008
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Box Elder bug, see: http://www.royala...eld1.jpg
It only lives on Box Elder trees, so far as I know. http://maple.dnr...._box.htm
Question: are there Box Elder trees in London?
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WolfAtTheDoor - Jul 19, 2008
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looks like a box elder bug

Exactly what I thought. Silly scientists.
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seanpu - Jul 21, 2008
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unless we will start calling different coloured humans different special names, its a Box Elder. different colours but otherwise identical.
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snwboardn - Jul 21, 2008
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unless we will start calling different coloured humans different special names, its a Box Elder. different colours but otherwise identical.

Yea we already tried that... From what I've heard it didn't go over too well. Just ask Jesse Jackson and Whoopi Goldberg.
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