April 29, 2011
Last night while posting to the website, Daniel felt something crawling on his neck, and it was this gorgeous large black Click Beetle. This is the second time this beetle has been found in our Mt Washington, Los Angeles offices, and the first sighting was almost exactly two years ago. Recently while planting walnuts in nearby Elyria Canyon Park, a large Wireworm was uncovered in the dirt. Sadly, there does not seem to be a match on BugGuide. Species in the genus Lanelater are not listed in California on BugGuide, and we thought we might have an identification with the California species Melanectes densus, but that species seems broader with different antennae than our little beauty. It seems a bit tragic that we are unable to identify our own species of Click Beetle, but perhaps Mardikavana or one of our other beetle aficionados will be able to provide an identification.
We kept this beauty on the kitchen table under a glass until there was natural morning light for an indoor portrait and we later release it after taking some outdoor images as well.
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[...] candidate for our May Bug of the Month, we couldn’t resist posting a photo of an unidentified Click Beetle that we also found at our Mt Washington location.0 I like ThisRelated Posts [...]
[...] of making them the Bug of the Month for May, but in an impulsive moment, we decided to feature a Black Click Beetle instead, but we are having second thoughts. We have decided to demote the Black Click Beetle from [...]