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Colorado Springs Beetle
This came crawling along the floor in the basement of our Colorado Springs, CO home. We brought it outside, but it promtply died on our icy deck. While collecting it for transport, it emitted a chemical smell. The smell is quite potent. Is it of the genus Eloedes? Darkling beetle? Thanks for the info.
ryan
Hi Ryan,
You are correct. Darkling Beetles in the genus Eleodes are sometimes known as Stink Beetles.
for your collection
I took this photo in Vermont, they’re some kind of carrion beetles and they were swarming the raunchiest smelling mushroom I have ever encountered… I did look up the mushroom and I think it is ‘Phallus impudicus’ which is a very apt description if you ask me. Not sure the exact name of the beetles but anything that likes to eat that nasty mushroom gets kudos from me. Your site is fabulous, and your calendar is super fabulous!
Zoe
Hi Zoe,
Thanks for the compliments. Your beetles look like Margined Carrion Beetles, Oiceoptoma noveboracensis.
Bug question for the Bugman
Hello Bugman,
What an amazing and beautiful website! I wish I stumbled across it sooner. It is a great inspiration; it makes me want to learn more about these awesome creatures. Thank you. We found this beetle crawling on a rock near a mountain stream in Colorado. It was sometime around October, 2005. Any ideas? I tried looking it up but had no luck.
alicia
Hi Alicia
We decided to check in on Eric Eaton for help and he quickly responded: ” It’s a pleasing fungus beetle, Gibbifer californicus, in the family Erotylidae. This is one of the larger, more spectacular species, found in the southwest U.S.” The adults and larvae both feed on a variety of wood rotting fungi, hence the name Pleasing Fungus Beetle. Additional research turned up this amusing name: Humpty Dumpty Erotylidae.
Bed Bug or Flea?
My wife found this in our newborn twins’ nursery. We live in NYC and do not have pets. Very rarely have we gone out because it is cold out! Threw out the day bed and sanitized the nursery this morning. We thought it was a bed bug but it doesn’t have a head and the legs are long. Could it be a flea although it seems large? Definitely not a lady bug. It has long legs, no distinguishable head. It is flat along the sides. Can’t see if it has pincers. What do you all think?
Regards,
Jeffrey Hwang
Hi Jeffrey,
This is a wonderful image of a Spider Beetle in the genus Mezium. They are common household pests that infest grain products. It is harmless to your twins.
Expert Update: (05/22/2008) spider beetle errors
Dear Bugman,
I believe I had written earlier when looking at many of the spider beetle pictures. Almost all of the shiny brown, globular body, images are of Gibbium aequinoctiale and not Mezium species. There is a combined 2 image photo (finger and beetle & 2 beetles) of Mezium : the answer was posted by Eric Eaton, I believe. Gibbium species do not have a velvety covering on the thorax, Mezium species do. You should correct your website postings so people will have a better idea of what they have been finding. Best regards,
Lou
Louis N. Sorkin, B.C.E.
Entomology Section
Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
New York
Dear Lou,
Thanks so much for resending this vital correction to our website. We really appreciate your expertise on this. We sincerely hope that addressing you with such familiarity doesn’t detract from your professional status.
Help to ID
Please, help me to ID this bug.
Thank you
Danilo Rivas
Brasil
Hi Danilo,
We wrote to Eric Eaton to see if he could identify your beetle. Here is his reply: “Ok, it IS a beetle, but, believe it or not, a Chrysomelidae leaf beele! These particular types are leaf miners in the subfamily Hispinae. There must be several genera and hundreds of species in the tropics. Eric”
Identification
These bugs were photographed in my parents back garden on the island of Borneo, Indonesia. Any idea what they are?
Victoria Matthews
Hi Victoria,
The magnificent beetle is one of the Hercules Beetles in the subfamily Dynastinae. They are also known as Rhinoceros Beetles. Eric Eaton just provided this correction: ” The Borneo “hercules beetle” is actually an “atlas beetle” in the genus Chalcosoma. The specimen is a male, and the genus is in the hercules subfamily Dynastinae.”
Hi
I found this beetle inside a piece of rotten playwood in my backyard in Sydney Australia
Heinz
Hello Heinz,
This Fiddler Beetle is the second we got this week and the fourth in a month.
Whats the Bug
today we found a little black beetle with fluro green markingd on its underside and back they are in a pattern of lines i was wondering if you could please tell me what sort of beetle it is we are located on queenslands goldcoast Australia our little dog was caught attacking the little beetle please let us no.
This is the third Fiddler Beetle, Eupoecila australasiae, photo we have received from Australia in the last month. It is truly a pretty beetle.
Can you help ID?
Looks like a leaf beetle but I can’t find out what kind in any of the books I have. This is a photo of just a few of them. We want to do some organic farming near by but hopefully not plant what they want to eat. What are they? What do they eat? They are in northern California (near Petaluma) in the many many thousands. Why are they meeting along a flooding ditch in the winter? Thanks for your help!
Pete
Hi Pete,
We don’t recognize your beetle, which we believe is either a Chrysomelid, a Leaf Beetle or our suspicion, a Coccinellid, one of the Ladybird Beetles. We are waiting for a response from Eric Eaton.
Eric Eaton’s Response: ” Believe it or not, those ARE lady beetles. More specifically, the striped lady beetle, Ceratomegilla vittigera (this is what I suspect to be an old name, and one would have to look for the more current synonym). I was not aware that this was a species that formed aggregations. We would love to add this species, and these images, to Bugguide (hint, hint). Eric ” Certain species of Ladybird Beetles form aggregations during the winter months in preparation for hibernation. We are requesting your permission to post this to BugGuide if you don’t mind. Eric later added this: ” Proper name for the striped lady beetle is Paranaemia vittigera. Apparently aggegations are not uncommon. I just didn’t know that. Eric “
It is fine to use the photo’s as you see fit. I have attached a close up and another group shot to help confirm the ID. Also one photo of the bad (from a gardener’s viewpoint) company the keep – diabrotica beetles. I sure hope they are ladybird’s.
Pete
Hi again Pete,
Thank you for the additional photos. The cohabitation photo with the Spotted Cucumber Beetle, though blurry, is very interesting. We will post to BugGuide as well.
Hi,
Have you any idea why lady bird beetles would congregate on seaweed at the beach? This is Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, north of San Francisco. Certainly no aphids on seaweed! Do they eat something else? Also, do these beetles get their spots in stages and are these all convergent ladybugs even though they don’t all have the regular spot pattern?
Thanks,
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
Ladybird Beetles are often swept out to sea or out onto large lakes due to wind patterns. They climb aboard whatever “raft” happens to float by, like seaweed. When the seaweed washes ashore, the Ladybird Beetles reach dry land and eventually fly away. There is much individual variation in coloration within species.
Lovely Unknown Bugs from Australia
Hi there,
Firstly I love your website and I’ve spent a considerable amount of time looking for my beasties there, to no avail. I’m not sure that you accept submissions from Australia, but I am hoping that you will be able to help me identify these fellas. I should say, I am in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia and these guys were found in my garden. The orange monster was uncovered whilst digging over some soil for planting, the green guy was just wandering across the grass. Thank you in advance for having a look at my buddies.
Cheers
Jenna
Hi Jenna,
Your beetles are beautiful and the photos are great as well. In the most general sense, the orange on is a Scarab Beetle in the Family Scarabidae. We did a quick web search and cannot exactly identify them but when we have more time, we will try again.
Update from Eric Eaton:
” Well, all I can tell you is that I’m pretty certain the green one is not a scarab, but a stag beetle (something on the order of Neolamprima???). I”m surprised there is not a great website on Australian beetles or something. Maybe subfamily would help? Likely that the spotted one is a flower scarab (Cetoninae). I’ll try digging from work tomorrow. Eric “
Update: (07/18/2007) mystery stag beetle found!!!
I ran into a website selling bugs and they have what looks like the spiecies of green stag beetle you guys at WTB have been looking for. I’ve attatched a picture of the beetle and a link for the site I’ve found it on, it says the beetle is called Neolamprina adolphinae. Sorry I can’t help you with the orange and black spotted beetle
Roger
Help Please!!
Hi,
I have been finding these bugs in my pantry (mostly in dry pasta and flour) and they must relocate!!!! I have found one in an empty bowl cupboard and one in the soap dish in the bathroom. I find only one at a time (not in groups), sometimes live and some dried up or skins. The image is scanned and enlarged about 100 times; actual size is about the size of a grain of rice.
Thank-you so very much!!!
Amy
Canada
Hi Amy,
You have Dermestid Pantry Beetle Larvae, a common household pest that infest stored grain products. The best remedy is to toss out all perishables in the pantry and stock anew, keeping only what you can use in a short period of time.
