Cicada?
Location: Mogollon Rim, AZ
July 28, 2011 8:12 am
While camping in Mogollon Rim, AZ in July, we rolled over a log and found these bugs, so the images you’re seeing are upside down. These guys were hardly moving, but there were other slow-moving bugs (the black ones) boring into holes in the log. I’m interested in figuring out what these are and I appreciate your time to help in that effort.
Signature: Jenn
Fungus Beetle Pupae
Hi Jenn,
This is a real puzzle for us, but we believe we know what you encountered. These look like the Larvae and Pupae of Lady Beetles, commonly called Lady Bugs. Here is a photo of the Larvae and Pupae of a Twice Stabbed Lady Beetle from BugGuide, and though the match is not exact, we believe you should be able to note the similarities. We are going to tag this as a mystery because we cannot figure out why such a large number of Larval Lady Beetles would decide to pupate in such a large aggregation under a log. That does not seem characteristic of what we would expect. Perhaps we are wrong and they are not Lady Beetle Larvae and Pupae, but we are relatively certain that they are some other group of Beetles. We will contact Eric Eaton to see if he can provide an answer. We also want to continue searching to see if there is any documentation of such an occurrence elsewhere on the internet. Thank you so much for submitting this puzzling identification request.
Aggregation of Fungus Beetle Larvae and Pupae
Eric Eaton makes a correction
August 1, 2011
Daniel:
The beetle pupae are actually of the fungus beetle Gibbifer californicus.
Eric
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Bug on Mushroom on down Oak Tree
Location: Memphis, TN
June 5, 2011 2:46 pm
Mr. Bugman,
These little critters are all over a downed oak tree in my yard. As you can see, the white part is mushrooms growing on the tree. The bugs are primarily on the mushrooms, but are on other part of the tree as well.
Signature: David Gordon
Pleasing Fungus Beetles, we believe
Hi David,
We believe these are Pleasing Fungus Beetles in the family Erotylidae (see BugGuide), but we cannot make out enough detail in your image to be certain. They most resemble the BugGuide images of Ischyrus quadripunctatus, but we cannot make out the identifying four spots in your photo.
Daniel,
Thank you so much. I didn’t really need a genus, I just really needed to make sure they weren’t “harmful” like ticks or something I needed to make an effort to get rid of them. If they are beetles, from what I understand, they are beneficial and I will leave them to live their lives in peace.
Thank you again,
David
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¶ Posted 05 June 2011 § ‡ ° costa rican beetle
March 28, 2010
This beetle was in the InBioParque in San Jose, Costa Rica last summer. It crawled to the sunny ends of branches and twigs. I only saw it by itself. Do you know what kind of beetle this is?
Thanks!
Jenny
costa Rica, San Jose, InBioParque
Pleasing Fungus Beetle
Hi again Jenny,
This is our final response for the night. This is a Pleasing Fungus Beetle. It bears a striking resemblance to Gibbifer californicus, the only species in the genus found in the U.S. according to BugGuide. We posted a member of the genus from Costa Rica in 2007. We searched for internet coverage of the genus from Costa Rica, and found a photo of a specimen on the La Anita Rainforest Ranch website that seems to look very similar to your individual, though we believe it is incorrectly identified as Gibbifer californicus.
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¶ Posted 29 March 2010 § ‡ ° 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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¶ Posted 29 June 2009 § ‡ ° Mystery larvae (or pupae?)
Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 7:55 AM
I was visiting one of our local natural areas and I found these dense clusters of insects on the lower stems of several woody plants in a small area. They didn’t move at all when prodded. They were found in a mixed hardwood/pine woods with dense leaf litter on the ground. I haven’t done a lot of research on what these might be, but I’m wondering if this is some sort of beetle?
G.P.
Alachua County, Florida
Beetle Larvae
Hi G.P.,
We believe these are Netwing Beetle Larvae in the family Lycidae. There is an image on BugGuide that looks quite close. We want to get an opinion from Eric Eaton on this curiosity.
Daniel:
Before you ask:
I suspect that the beetle larvae may be of the pleasing fungus beetle family Erotylidae rather than the net-wing beetles. I could very well be wrong, of course….
Eric
1
Blue beetle
I found this in Flagstaff, AZ, while I was on a hike. It was on an Aspen tree. I’ve never seen a beetle like this before. Can you tell me what it is?
Molly
Hi Molly,
When we first received your letter, we couldn’t immediately identify your Pleasing Fungus Beetle, but we remembered the photo. Today, while researching larvae of the Pleasing Fungus Beetles, family Erotylidae, we stumbled upon photos of the adult Gibbifer californicus on BugGuide, and it matches your submission. So, after three weeks, we have an answer for you and we apologize for the delay.
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¶ Posted 26 July 2008 § ‡ ° whats my bug
Hello, I found these beauties while hiking in Western Pennsylvania. There were a dozen or so of these beetles enjoying the delicious fungus in the picture. Curiosity got the best of me and I snapped a few pictures. Thanks,
Brian
Hi Brian,
They are pleasingly attractive beetles, and they eat fungus. Someone thought to name them Pleasing Fungus Beetles, Megalodacne heros. Here is a nice side by side comparison with a smaller relative, Hegalodacne fasciata.
¶ Posted 09 June 2008 § ‡ ° Question
Hello,
I heard about your site in German TV and so I remembered a photo I’d taken in 2006 in Sweden. That little bug is “torturing” a bumble-bee by pinching its proboscis. Can you tell me what ‘s happening there? Kind regards
H.Koslowski
Hi H,
You are the second letter we received today that mentioned seeing our site on television. Our first job is to identify your beetle. This appears to be a Flea Beetle in the tribe Alticini, but we would like verification. Hopefully, Eric Eaton can substantiate that. This diminutive beetle cannot possibly think the bee is food, but it might be hitching a ride, a phenomenon known as Phoresy. We hope to get clarification on that from Eric Eaton as well.
Hi, Daniel:
That is a really remarkable shot of the beetle clamped onto the bumble bee! It is not a flea beetle, or any other type of Chrysomelidae leaf beetle as far as I can tell (flea beetles get their name from their ability to jump, not because they are parasitic). I suspect it is some kind of sap beetle (family Nitidulidae), some of which can be abundant inside flowers.
Eric
Update: (02/08/2008)
Hello Daniel,
I think I have a proper guess what sort of a beetle this might be! It belongs to the genus Antherophagus (fam. Cryptophagidae, silken fungus beetles), which has three species in Sweden, all developing in nests of bumble bees. I think this one is A. pallens (Linnaeus, 1758) (~4 mm), which is the most common species of the genus. All species visit flowers to clamp onto bumble bees to hitch a ride and infest their nests. But the larvae are supposed to be harmless to their hosts, feeding on the bees’ faeces. So this is a perfect example of a picture showing the start of a Phoresy! Best,
Bengt Andersson Sweden
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