Love bug
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This page is about the insect called the Love Bug. For information about the internet virus see VBS/Loveletter. For the film, see The Love Bug.
The love bug (also lovebug, march fly), honeymoon fly, telephone bug and double-headed bug) (scientific name Plecia nearctica Hardy, Class: Insecta Order: Diptera: Bibionidae) is a small flying insect common to the southern United States, especially along the Gulf Coast. It is most often known as a serious nuisance to motorists.
Lovebugs.jpg
It was first described in 1940 by D. E. Hardy of Galveston, Texas. At that time, he reported the incidence of love bugs to be widespread, but most common in Texas and Louisiana. By the end of the 20th century, however, it had spread heavily to all areas bordering the Gulf of Mexico, as well as Georgia, South Carolina, and parts of Central America. L. A. Hetrick, writing in 1970, found it very widespread in Florida and described its flights as reaching altitudes of 300 m to 450 m and extending several kilometers over the Gulf.
The love bug is one of only two species of genus Plecia (out of more than 200 species worldwide) found in the U.S. (The other, Plecia americana Hardy, extends in range from North Carolina to Mexico and is a woodland species that does not seem to be a problem on highways, though its life cycle is otherwise similar to P. nearctica.) P. nearctica varies in size from 6 mg to 10 mg in the male and 15 mg to 25 mg in the female (most of the difference being due to the ovaries, which contain 70 percent of the total protein in the body). It appears in two generations, in May and September, each lasting about four weeks. The larvae feed on decaying plant material and adults do not eat at all.
Its character as a public nuisance is due not to its bite or sting (as it is not capable of either) but to its apparently highly acidic body chemistry. Because airborne mating love bugs are drawn in enormous numbers to roadways, they die in enormous numbers on automobile windshields, hoods, and radiator grills. If left for more than an hour or two, the remains become dried and extremely difficult to remove, and their acidity pits and etches the paint and chrome. Scrubbing deceased love bugs off the front of one's car immediately after the evening rush hour is a twice-yearly ritual for commuters in the Gulf South.
Popular tongue-in-cheek lore holds that love bugs are actually man-made, the result of a genetics experiment gone wrong. Since the creature had no natural enemies and seemed to spend its entire lifespan continually mating, its numbers quickly exploded into the trillions (or so it often seems).
References
- Hardy, D. E. "Studies in New World Plecia (Bibionidae: Diptera)." Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 13 (1940): 15-27.
- Hetrick L. A. 1970a. "Biology of the 'lovebug,' Plecia nearctica (Diptera: Bibionidae)." Florida Entomologist 53 (1970): 23-26.
- University of Florida Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences, article on love bugs (http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/misc/lovebug.htm)