New bug for me :)

Spotted this little guy (about 5mm body length) running around at fairly high speed on a sedum spectabile plant. At first I thought it was an odd ant, then thought a flightless wasp until I saw it's proboscis and realised it was capsid/mirid bug. Turns out it is a predator specialising in ant larvae/eggs but not the adults. This was near where I spotted the recent ant war going on so there is both a black and red ant's nest nearby.
Does sort of look like an ant eater

ID Myrmecoris gracilis

Click on Pics for larger size

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Excellent captures..second and third are my favourites.

Alistair.

Nice find Brian, it seems to have the head of the weevil and the body of an ant.

Hiya Brian,

Excellent shots/captures, nice find.

Not seen one of these before apart from in books #3 is my favorite.

Cheers for now
Mark

Thanks for the comments Alistair, Alby and Mark.
Always get a bit excited when I see a new bug - sad isn't it

Brian V.

On the contrary, I think it's us who are sad.

'A new bug for Brian? I'd better take a look...

Great shots, as always.

man that thing looks like it could hurt. and i had to double read the heading. i like #3 the most.

Bill

got a couple on my wild strawberries but they wont keep still.

Thanks again for the comments all,
RM- I mis-read your post and thought you had a couple of wild strawberries that wouldn't keep still - Did have quite a time tracking this one around including stopping it diving for cover by getting it to climb on a leaf at starting it off again at the top of the plant

Brian V.