Paracritheus trimaculatus – obviously odd!

This bug has a remarkable feature, which was a bit confusing to me. Maybe it is because almost everything in nature is even: You have 2, 4, 6 or eight legs, but never 3 or 5; 2 eyes, 2 antennas, you get the point.

This bug has three so obvious, white dots that it almost hit me in the face: ‘I am odd!’ The name trimaculatus says it already. Ladybugs BTW come with odd numbers of dots too, but with 9 or 15 dots it’s just not that obvious.

The other interesting fact about this bug is, that it looks a bit like a beetle to me, and it followed me with it’s gaze likea weaver ant. It took me a while to be clear that it is a true bug. I have seen it only twice in my life so far.

So what is known about them? Surprisingly, it also occurs in Africa, e.g in Ethiopia. They appear from India to Indonesia, including China. And I have to admit that this linked study about the meiosis is too odd for me. It has something to do with cells dividing into 4 cells instead of 2. But there are so many terms I’ve never heard of, that I gave up trying to understand it. Others than that I couldn’t find much. It has been described by two French, Amédée Louis Michel le Peletier, comte de Saint-Fargeau and Jean Guillaume Audinet-Serville. Seems they worked together mostly in 1828. That year they were 58 resp. 55 years old. Nothing too odd here.

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