Friday Beetle Blogging: Trox Hide Beetle

Scarab’s shrewd cousin,
Elytra warty like hide.
Must be Trogidae!
Photo details: Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, f/16, 1/250 sec, indirect strobe in white box

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Notoxus flower beetle

Notoxus desertus – Antlike Flower Beetle
Pyramid Lake, Nevada
This furry little beetle comes with its own sun visor, a horn-like structure that projects over the head from the pronotum.  I photographed this Notoxus along the shores of Pyramid Lake where it was feeding on pollen.
Photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Goldenrod Soldier Beetles

Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus
Goldenrod Soldier Beetles
Illinois, USA
Here at Myrmecos Blog we aim for a family-friendly atmosphere.  Except for beetle sex.  Sometimes we just can’t resist.
(There’s also plant sex going on here too, if you’re into that sort of thing…)
Photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D
ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, diffused twin [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Edrotes Dune Beetle

Edrotes ventricosus (Tenebrionidae) – Dune Beetle
California, USA
In arid environments around the world, darkling beetles in the family Tenebrionidae are among the most prominent insects.  Their thick, waxy cuticles excel at retaining moisture.  Edrotes ventricosus is a dune inhabitant in southern California.
Photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, f/13, [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Tribolium flour beetles

Here’s a beetle that the genetics-inclined entomologist will recognize.  Tribolium castaneum, the red flour beetle, was the first Coleopteran to have its genome sequenced.
This small tenebrionid is native to the Indo-Australian region but has become a pest of stored grains around the world.  I photographed these individuals from a lab culture at the University of [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Cicada Parasite Beetle

Sandalus niger is one of the oddest beetles in eastern North America.  While most parasitic insects are concentrated in other orders- notably Hymenoptera and Diptera- Coleoptera contains relatively few parasites.  But there are a few.
Beetle larvae in the small polyphagan family Rhipiceridae attack cicada nymphs in their underground burrows.  Our local species is Sandalus niger, [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Scarites Ground Beetle

Scarites sp. Ground Beetle (Carabidae)
Urbana, Illinois
As the summer bug season freezes to a close here in Illinois, our attention turns increasingly to the cryptic habitats where insects settle in to overwinter.  The flowers have faded, but insects can still be found under tree bark, in rotting wood, and in leaf litter.  This ground beetle had [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Amphicrossus Sap Beetle

I admit to a soft spot for beetles in the family Nitidulidae.  Maybe it’s the cute clubby antennae.  Or maybe it’s just the shared fondness for beer.  In any case, the sap beetles are charming little insects.
I found this Amphicrossus imbibing fermented tree sap from a wounded tree in downtown Champaign, Illinois.  Tree wounds and [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Chlaenius ground beetle

This colorful beetle came from our back yard.  It’s a ground beetle in the genus Chlaenius, recognizeable from its pubescent elytra and pungent defensive secretions.  Like most ground beetles, Chlaenius makes a living as a predator.
The beetle’s metallic sheen is not the result of a pigment but of fine microscopic sculpturing on the integument.  This [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Nicrophorus orbicollis

The intrepid students of IB 468 caught this beautiful black burying beetle during a field trip to Dixon Springs, Illinois.  They were kind enough to let me photograph it before it went to the collection.
Rather than me blathering on about this insect’s biology, I’ll direct you instead to the N. orbicollis wikipedia page.  Wikipedia is [...]

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