Red and black haf inch beetle
June 19, 2009
This little guy has been perplexing me for years. It was about a half inch long, and flew onto the door latch right infront of me. It was slow moving and calm. It had a black head with small flecks of red underneath by the jaws, and the black tapered to a point halfway down the back, leaving the sides of the wings red. I’ve seen a lot of beetles while searching this, that have a similar color pattern, but they are the opposite, with red bodies and black wings. This guy has me stumped.
love the site, keep on buggin
Abi
Upper peninsula MI
Scarlet Malachite Beetle
Hi Abi,
We are trying to catch up on some unanswered emails by skipping around until we find an interesting request. Your beetle is a new one for us, so we did some research on bugGuide. This is a Scarlet Malachite Beetle, Malachius aeneus, one of the Soft-Winged Flower Beetles. BugGuide lists the range as: “across southern Canada and northern United States, south in the east to at least North Carolina, south in the west to Oregon also occurs in Europe, western Asia, and the Middle East introduced to North America (no info available on date or location).” This remark on BugGuide is also quite interesting: “In 2005, Buglife, a UK charitable organization devoted to the conservation of invertebrates, lauched the Scarlet Malachite Beetle Project, requesting members of the general public to report sightings of Malachius aeneus, whose numbers have declined in England in recent years. A number of clubs and groups (examples: 1, 2, 3) have joined the project, which has generated a good response and involvement from the public, and has helped to raise awareness of invertebrate conservation issues in general.”
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Posted 17 July 2009
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Beautiful Red Beetle
July 15, 2009
I’ve seen these small active red beetles in Oklahoma woodlands all of my life, over 50 years, but never have identified them. They are very showy and run or fly readily to escape. They are active in the hottest times of the summer in the daytime. I found this one in mid-July in central Oklahoma on a 105 F degree-day. I’ve never seen them in groups only as singles. It’s about a third of an inch long.
K. Hopkins
Oklahoma, USA
Checkered Beetle
Dear K.,
We didn’t realize we were answering two of your letters back to back. This is a Checkered Beetle, Enoclerus ichneumoneus. You may find matching images on BugGuide. After opening five different large files for your photographs, the photo instructor in us feels compelled to tell you that you have a lot of visual noise. Try changing the sensitivity to light (ISO) or some other resolution factor which is causing your otherwise marvelous images to be degraded.
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Posted 15 July 2009
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small, rust-colored but with black stripes/markings around tail
Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 3:32 PM
I was outside and a small (maybe 1/2″) bug flew into my shirt. It may have bitten me, but I’m not sure. It’s rust-colored with some black stripes or markings around its tail. It has wings. I’ve attached a photo of it. I’ve never seen a bug like this before. Could it be poisonous? Do you think it could have bitten me? Thanks for any help you can provide.
Anne
Nashville, TN
Checkered Beetle
Hi Anne,
We are always amused at the number of people who write to us wanting “buts” identified. This is one of the most commonly encountered species of Checkered Beetles, Enoclerus nigripes. It is entirely possible that it bit you, but Checkered Beetles do not bite people except when threatened. They are not poisonous. BugGuide has numerous nice images of this species.
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Posted 24 April 2009
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My Friend Fred
I work on the 29th floor of a huge building in the middle of downtown Portland Oregon. I found this little guy barely alive in my windowsill one day and have no idea where he came from. His appearance did coincide with an orchid that was donated to my office though, so he might have come in with that. Anyway, I poured a couple drops of water onto the ledge before I left that night and the next morning he was walking all over the place…on the window, on the sill, over my books. He has been my office mate for 4 days now. I though he might be a box elder bug or a milkweed bug, but haven’t found any pictures that look like him and I’ve never seen him fly. He is about half an inch long. Could you let me know what my new friend is?
Well, perhaps his life span was short, or maybe he just did what we all feel like doing stuck in a skyscraper day after day…curled up and died of claustrophobia. I haven’t heard anything though and am still interested to know what he was.
Leah Woodard
Springbrook Software
Hi Leah,
I’m not sure why we never got your original letter. Fred was a Checkered Beetle from the Family Cleridae. Checkered Beetles are brightly patterned with red, orange, yellow and blue and they have bulging eyes. Adults visit flowers and rest on foliage and trunks of dying or dead trees and they prey on the larva of wood boring insects. Larva of some species prey on bark beetle larva while others feed on grasshopper eggs. Our California species, Aulicus terrestris, feeds on caterpillars. We contacted Eric Eaton to try to get an exact species name. Here is his response:
“I grew up in Portland and never saw anything like this! It is indeed a checkered beetle (family Cleridae), but I wonder if it might even be exotic, and came in on produce or something. Jacques Rifkind runs a wonderful website with LOADS of images of Cleridae, so maybe someone should try searching that site for a match. These kinds of clerids are not pests, BTW, but prey on bark beetles and other pest insects. Eric”
Update: (06/27/2007) Eric Eaton pursued the following identification.
Daniel: At last we have an ID on that checkered beetle: Enoclerus eximius according to Jacques Rifkind! Please see attached, and make sure he gets the credit for BOTH identifications. I was merely mediator here. Thanks. Eric
Dear Eric, Jpeg came through fine. That one is indeed Enoclerus eximius (Mannerheim). Have a good weekend! Cheers, J
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Posted 15 June 2005
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