Wheel bug life exspectancy?

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ismart

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I was just wondering if anyone had an idear of how long wheel bugs (Arilus cristatus) can live for? I have had an adult male that i caught in NC last September, while attending Bugfest. He was an adult when i found him. I was thinking of posting an add to try and get him a mate, but if he does not have to long to live, then it may not be even worth trying? What do you guys think?

 
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It's not so much an answer, but my thought is you have a 50/50 chance it could live through summer. The troubling part is that different locations where these are found may produce more than one brood and even locations are susceptible to different patterns of weather in different years (affecting numbers of broods possible). Silkmoths are a common example of this, where a particular species might have two or three broods in Arizona, but only one in Oregon due to the shorter warm season.

Since yours is wild caught, I'd guess there are three possibilities:

1. You have a very old adult who would otherwise be dead if left in the wild with exposure to normal temps and food availability through winter.

2. You have an adult that matured just before the cold season came and was likely to overwinter and begin the reproductive portion of its cycle when the warm season returned.

3. Wheel bugs live about 2 years, optimally.

I guess time will tell!

I've posted this before, but hate to miss another opportunity:

 
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