Rhyephenes gayi, the first weevil I've seen in Chile. This beetle is a forest pest, since the holes made in the bark by adults and the galeries beneath the bark made by the larvae allow water and fungi into the wood, thus debilitating weak trees. They have a low capacity for dispersion, since their elytra are fused and thus cannot fly.
Scales are a group of insects with extreme sexual dimorphism. Females are oval in shape, with no wings and reduced antennae and legs, and covered by a waxy substance. Males, like the one in the picture, have well developed eyes, legs and antennae, and this group in particular has two long posterior filaments (cerci) covered by wax. These have the unfortunate name Puto sp. (family Putoidae), which in Spanish means male prostitute.
Several members of the family Acanthopidae have ejes with subconic tubercules or spines. This is another example of the urban insect diversity in Caracas. This mantis was found on the USB campus.
Our insect lab had a visitor this past Thursday: a female boxing mantis (Acanthops centralis). They're dead leaf mimics, so their overall color is brown, but the upper part of their abdomen is pink and the veins in their hindwings are yellow. It only shows these colors when disturbed.
Stiletto flies (family Therevidae) are infrequently collected, despite them living in a wide range of habitats. Their larvae are predators of subterranean arthropods.