April 15, 2011
Last Friday, Daniel noticed this Diabolical Ironclad Beetle, Phloeodes diabolicus, nestled into a crevice in the asphalt paving of the street along side the Mt. Washington WTB? offices. It seems the beetle was attempting to cross the road. With most insects, this might be a dicey proposition since getting run over by a car would mean squishing, however, the Diabolical Ironclad Beetle has a very hard exoskeleton. It would most likely survive being run over by a vehicle. The Diabolical Ironclad Beetle played dead during the photo shoot, and it was eventually released in the garden among the logs. See BugGuide for more photos of Diabolical Ironclad Beetles.
As an aside, we will be out of the office for several days, and no new identification requests will be answered during our absence. We can say with some confidence that any emails that arrive between April 20 and April 26 might not get a response. However, we will be preparing daily automatic postings in our absence.
