False Blister Beetles | What's That Bug?

Category Archives: False Blister Beetles

Checkered Beetle (or possibly False Blister Beetle) from Australia

australian sparkly bug
Location: Victoria, Australia
December 26, 2010 8:21 pm
hi, thanks for the great site. Here’s a bug from Victoria, Australia (outer northeastern suburbs of Melbourne). It’s the sparkliest bug I’ve ever seen but I have no idea what it is!
Signature: Ophelia

Checkered Beetle

Hi Ophelia,
Our initial search of the Insects of Brisbane website did not produce any potential identification, but we will continue to research this query. Your beetle somewhat resembles the Checkered Beetles in the family Cleridae, so we are linking to the Superfamily Cleroidea on BugGuide. This really is a pretty little beetle. Perhaps one of our readers will be able to provide some assistance.

Update:
Mardikavana who frequently assists in the identification of Beetles, has provided a comment indicating that this is a False Blister Beetle in the family Oedemeridae. BugGuide has information on the family. The Brisbane Insect website indicates that the family are known as Pollen Feeding Beetles. The Life Unseen website does not identify this species among the members of the family Oedemeridae that are represented on the site.

wow – thanks for the quick reply. I’d never seen anything quite so
sparkly in beetle form. I’m in Victoria rather than brisbane, way
down south-east.
Best,
Ophelia

Update: January 5, 2010
A new comment just arrived that contradicts the False Blister Beetle identification and which agrees with our initial Checkered Beetle ID. We found a link on Flickr (and a second on Flickr) that supports the Checkered Beetle ID as well as a different species from the genus on Oz Animals.

¶ Posted 27 December 2010 § Checkered Beetles ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: WTB? Down Under

Spotted Lax Beetle from Australia

Spotted Beetle (?)
Sun, Dec 28, 2008 at 8:22 PM
We found two of these fellows crawling on the inside of a lampshade. I’ve only seen one once before, in a bathroom in Northland, New Zealand. Both sightings were in houses with plenty of moderately untended garden, so they may have wandered in from there… any help identifying would be much appreciated.
David
Auckland, New Zealand

Unknown Soldier Beetle

Hi David,
We believe this is a Soldier Beetle in the family Cantharidae, but we cannot find a matching specimen on the Brisbane Insect web site. Perhaps one of our readers can provide a species specific identification for this distinctive beetle.

Correction
Nice image of what I’m thinking might be some kind of “false blister beetle” in the family Oedemeridae. I’m sending a query to my entomology listserv to see if anyone can confirm my suspicion of Oedemeridae, and perhaps give a genus and species….
Eric Eaton

Confirmation
Eric is right, it is an Oedemeridae. It the Spotted lax beetle, Parisopalpus nigronotatus, found in Australia and NZ.
Diane.

Thanks Diane and Eric,
Though we wanted to try to link to other online postings of this species, we only found one listing on the New Zealand Landcare Research web site without images.