![Harlequin bug. (Photo: Jack Kelly Clark)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/51301small.jpg)
Yesterday we posted an “Easter egg hunt” challenge, and as promised, here are the adult insects and spiders with their matching eggs or egg cases pictured. How did you do?
We welcome your feedback, so please sign in and post a comment below to tell us if the egg hunt was easy or difficult, and how many answers you guessed correctly. Or, you can write us a note about the challenge on our UC IPM Urban/Community Facebook page.
Now for the answers:
A. Harlequin bugs are...
![Adult hoplia beetle and feeding damage. [J.K.Clark]](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/43235small.jpg)
If you grow roses, you might be noticing damage on the flowers caused by hoplia beetles (Hoplia callipyge). Hoplia beetles, which are common between March and May, especially in the Central Valley, feed on the blossoms of light-colored roses and other flowers in your landscape.
Hoplia beetle adults are small, reddish-brown scarab beetles that are often found resting inside a blossom. If you hold one in your hand, you'll notice that most of the body is a beautiful, iridescent silvery green color in the sunlight.
These beetles may also occasionally be found feeding on other plants with light-colored petals.
Some people believe they have the rose chafer or Japanese beetle in their landscape, however...
- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
![Adult Jerusalem cricket. [A.Antonelli]](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/38773small.jpg)
We have received several questions lately from people who've found large, strange looking insects in their garden and landscape. What are these alien-like creatures? Are they good, bad, do they bite?
They are Jerusalem crickets, also sometimes called sand cricket, niña de la tierra (child of the earth), potato bug, and stone cricket.
Jerusalem crickets are relatives of crickets, grasshoppers, and katydids. These large insects can be up to two inches long and have heads that somewhat resemble a human head. Their head and body are amber colored, with dark stripes on the abdomen, long antennae, and no wings. Their thick legs are...
![Adult leaffooted bugs. [D.R. Haviland]](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/36887small.jpg)
If you've noticed some odd-looking bugs in your garden or landscape recently, you might have leaffooted bugs. These medium to large sized insects feed on certain fruits, fruiting vegetables, nuts and ornamental plants.
Life Cycle
Adult females can lay over 200 eggs during a two-month period during spring. The eggs hatch and the nymphs emerge and can be found together with the adults. During spring and summer, there can be two to three generations of leaffooted bugs in your landscape!
In spring, leaffooted plant bugs often feed on thistles and other weeds. When fruits start to ripen, adults migrate into gardens and landscapes and can be found feeding on tomatoes, pomegranates, and citrus as well as ornamental...
/h2>![Adult leaffooted bug, Leptoglossus zonatus.](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/22284small.jpg)
An army of leaffooted bugs attacking pomegranates, tomatoes or other plants in your garden can be quite disconcerting. They are large, long-legged bugs with a big appetite for fruits and seeds. After overwintering as adults in protected areas such as wood piles or outbuildings, they emerge to feed on seeds of winter weeds and then head out to farms and gardens in search of early season fruit and a place to lay eggs.
To learn more about identification, biology and management of these bugs, read the newly published Pest Note: Leaffooted Bugs authored by Chuck Ingels, UCCE Sacramento County and David Haviland, UCCE Kern County.