Scientific Name: Thasus acutangulus
Order:  Hemiptera
Family:  Coreidae
Diet:  Eats stems and pods of Mesquite during the summer months.
Vegetation Association:  Mesquite tree.  Nymphs are a red color and can be found feeding together on mesquite pods.
Predators:  The coloring of giant mesquite bugs warns predators that they are distasteful.
Life Stages:  Incomplete metamorphosis; egg nymph, adult.  The eggs look like small brown pillows in rows on the stems of the mesquite.  Eggs hatch in the spring, mate, and live through the end of the summer.  They leave their eggs to over-winter until the following spring.
Notes:  When handled they produce a potent sticky secretion.  

Photos: to be added.

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