Black spots on a blue beetle
Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Hi – We were at Windy Point on Mt Lemmon in Tucson AZ at the end of May and spotted (get it? spotted?) this handsome fellow. I have never seen anything like him before. Can you identify him? I didn’t see his wings.
Julie
Tucson AZ
Pleasing Fungus Beetle
Hi Julie,
Your beetle is Gibbifer californicus, a Pleasing Fungus Beetle in the family Erotylidae. The family members are known as Pleasing Fungus Beetles and your specimen does not have a more specific common name. According to BugGuide, it “Southwestern United States: Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, south into Mexico ” and “Adults feed on nectar, pollen, and some fungi. Larvae feed on fungi that are attacking wood.”
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