Beetles
awild | March 20, 2008
Chauliognathus lecontei - LeConte's Soldier Beetle
Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona
Soldier Beetles are named for their bright colors. Larvae are predaceous, but adults are commonly seen feeding from the nectar and pollen of flowers.
photo details: Canon 100m f2.8 macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/6.3, 1/250 sec, ISO 200
indirect strobe in white box
awild | March 14, 2008
Hololepta Clown Beetle (Histeridae)
Arizona
If Oscars were awarded for Most Aesthetically Pleasing Sculpturing on an Insect, hister beetles would make the short list. Especially Hololepta, which not only shows the trademark histerid shininess but also has a flattened, paper-thin body. Michele Lanan, who collected this beetle for me, noted that it seems designed to inhabit the pages of a book.
In case it isn't obvious from those killer mandibles, Hololepta is predatory. This one was found in a rotting cactus in the Arizona desert, where it likely hunted fly larvae.
photo details: TOP…
awild | March 11, 2008
Coprophanaeus caroliae Edmonds 2008
Dung Beetle - Bolivia
Source: Edmonds, W.D. 2008. A new species of Coprophanaeus Olsoufieff (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) from Bolivia. Zootaxa 1723: 42-46.
awild | March 7, 2008
Apteroloma caraboides (Agyrtidae) - Snowfield Beetle
California
Why would I waste a prime Friday Beetle Blogging slot on such a drab little beetle? Because Apteroloma caraboides does something really cool. Really cold, even. This species inhabits the edges of high-altitude snowfields. They are found in places like these, in the high Sierra Nevada:
Snowfields are an inhospitable environment for an insect, but one that offers animals with good cold tolerance a unique way to make a living. Apteroloma caraboides cruise the easy pickings of less hardy creatures that fall onto the snow…
awild | February 29, 2008
Lycus net-winged beetles, Arizona
My latest beetle photos are now posted at myrmecos.net.
awild | February 28, 2008
Laccophilus pictus - Predaceous Diving Beetle
Arizona, USA
Here's one of my favorite Arizona insects. Laccophilus pictus is a small diving beetle, less than a centimeter long, that is common in small ponds and streams in the mountains south of Tucson. It's also one of the beetles that we're using as an exemplar taxon for the Beetle Tree of Life project. Very pretty, no?
photo details. Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/13, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
beetle in small aquarium
illuminated with MT-24-EX twin flash
awild | February 22, 2008
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, illuminated with indirect flash
BOTTOM PHOTO. Canon MPE-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/13, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
Twin Flash diffused through tracing paper.
awild | February 15, 2008
Lutrochus arizonicus - Travertine Beetle
Arizona, USA
Here's an odd sort of beetle of whose existence I was entirely ignorant until a few showed up in our lab. My primary research these days is with the Beetle Tree of Life group, and the travertine beetle is just one of many Coleopteran wonders I've been introduced to over the past couple of years. This one is especially cute.
These little guys are aquatic, clinging to rocks in fast-moving streams. They're rather picky animals and not just any rocks will do. They need a particular kind of limestone called Travertine. The long tarsal…
grrlscientist | February 11, 2008tags: beetle, insect, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
The tiger beetle, Cicindela formosa,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
awild | February 8, 2008
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 observe and to catch.
photo details: Canon 100mm f2.8Â macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/18, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
Beetles in a 5-gallon aquarium with a colored posterboard for backdrop.
Off-camera flash bounced off white paper.
Levels adjusted in Photoshop.
awild | February 1, 2008
Onthophagus gazella
Gazelle Scarab, Arizona
At my current rate of once-a-week Beetle Blogging, I'll need 10,000 years to cover every living species.
Wish me luck.
photo details: Beetle attracted to UV light
Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/13, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
flash diffused through tracing paper
levels adjusted in Photoshop; slight lateral crop
awild | January 25, 2008
Adranes ant-nest beetle
California
The most exciting finds are often the least expected. I stumbled across this odd little beetle while collecting ants several years ago in northern California. It was tiny, only a few millimeters long, with a little blind nubbin for a head whose sole purpose seemed to be supporting antennae that looked like a pair of cricket bats. The Lasius ants whose nest played host to this strange creature did not appear to pay it any particular attention. Ants are normally rather vicious towards interlopers, so their nonchalance often reveals successful infiltration by…
awild | January 23, 2008
Nilio species, Tenebrionidae
Gamboa, Panama
I thought this was a chrysomelid leaf beetle for the first few minutes of the photo shoot. It's got such a nice round leaf-beetle shape. Not to mention the bright leaf beetle colors.
But no. The arrangement of the tarsi (5-5-4) and the short, 11-segmented antennae give away its true tenebrionid nature. I'd never seen anything like it.
Tenebrionidae are the darkling beetles, most species have rather drab coloration and a more elongate body form. My labmate Kojun, who helpfully identifies the tenebrionids over at bugguide.net, recognized this…
awild | January 18, 2008
"I went out collecting with Albert Way of Trinity, who in after years became a well-known archaeologist; also with H. Thompson, afterwards a leading agriculturalist, chairman of a great railway, and a Member of Parliament. It seems therefore that a taste for collecting beetles is some indication of future success in life."
- Charles Darwin
Cactus Longhorn Beetle, Moneilema sp.
Tucson, Arizona
details: Canon 100mm macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/20, 1/2 sec, ISO 400
camera on tripod, natural light
levels adjusted in…