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.
I found one exactly like this recently near JPL in Altadena, and for the life of me, I cannot get any solid ID on the thing!
Altadena is not too far from our own Mount Washington sightings. Perhaps we will try to contact Doug Yanega at UC Riverside to see if he can provide any information.