Big-eyed Toad Bug

By Bruce G. Marcot, Ecology Picture of the Week:

Half the size of your little fingernail, this toad bug was scampering and hopping along the rocks lining the Middle Fork John Day River during a warm summer day in eastern Oregon.  This individual was incredibly well camouflaged and I didn't notice it until it moved.  

Toad bugs may look like toads, and hop like toads, and feed on small insects like toads, but they're still a bug ... a true bug of Order Hemiptera.  

Toad bugs are widespread and usually occur along the water's edge by ponds and streams.  They pounce on insect prey and grasp them with their front legs.  

Toad bugs lay eggs in sand and adults often spend much of their life down within the sand.  

  --Bruce G. Marcot

Image and text © Bruce G. Marcot, Ph.D. Research Wildlife Ecologist,
who produces the Ecology Picture of the Week website.