Friday Beetle Blogging: An Obscure Rove Beetle

This week was warm enough to go insect hunting in the yard, so the Friday beetle is back with new material.  I snapped a few shots of this little staphylinid under a brick, figuring I’d identify it later. That turned out to be a more complicated process than I’d anticipated.

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Ostoma Bark-Gnawing Beetle

If you peel back the bark of an old stump in the forests of western North America, there’s a good chance you’ll find some of these attractive tank-like insects. This is Ostoma pippingskoeldi, a predatory beetle in the family Trogossitidae. They lurk about under bark searching for soft-bodied prey, including the larvae of other beetles. [...]

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Popularity Watch: Dung Beetle vs. Glenn Beck

We here at Myrmecos Blog don’t care to voice our opinion of talk show host Glenn Beck. But we are rather enamored of dung beetles, those gorgeously ornamented insects who prevent the world from being buried in feces. Thus, we were pleased to find the following Facebook project in our inbox this weekend: Can This [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Dynastes granti, the Western Hercules Beetle

Meet Dynastes granti. This behemouth of an insect is North America’s heaviest scarab beetle, found in the mountains of the American southwest where adults feed on the sap of ash trees. I photographed these spectacular insects a few years ago while living in Tucson. The impressive pronotal horn on the beetle pictured above indicates a [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: The Eyed Elater

Alaus oculatus (Elateridae) – The Eyed Elater Illinois One of North America’s largest beetles, the eyed elater is more than an inch long.  Alaus oculatus is widespread in the deciduous forests of eastern North America where their larvae are predators of wood-boring beetles.  Other species of Alaus occur in the south and west.  This individual [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Spotted Maize Beetle

The spotted maize beetle Astylus atromaculatus is native to subtropical South America but has spread to warm regions in other parts of the world.  In late summer, adults congregate on flowers to mate and feed on pollen. photo details (all photos): Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D ISO 100, 1/250 [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Scaphinotus Snail-Eating Beetle

Scaphinotus petersi – Snail-Eating Ground Beetle Arizona Ground beetles- the family Carabidae- are a spectacular evolutionary radiation of terrestrial predators. The elegant, flightless beetles of the genus Scaphinotus prefer snails and slugs. photo details. TOP PHOTO. Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon 20D f/18, 1/250 sec, ISO 100 inside a white box studio, [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: Dineutes Whirligig

Dineutes sublineatus – whirligig beetle Arizona, USA Whirligigs are masters of the thin interface between air and water, predating on animals caught in the surface tension.   In the field it can be hard to appreciate the finely sculptured details of their bodies, the erratic movements that give them their name also make them hard to [...]

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