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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Water, Rove, Scarab, Longhorn, Leaf and Snout Beetles (Polyphaga) » Click, Firefly and Soldier Beetles (Elateroidea) » Soldier Beetles (Cantharidae) » Cantharinae » Atalantycha » Two-lined Leather-wing (Atalantycha bilineata)
Photo#14681
Soldier beetle - Atalantycha bilineata
Copyright © 2005 Charles Schurch Lewallen

Soldier beetle - Atalantycha bilineata
Henryetta, Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, USA
April 9, 2005
Size: aprox. 15mm
This looks like Richard's Ancistronycha bilineata.
Also looks like a picture in my Kansas book labled Cantharis bilineatus. but the size is 6mm.
Are A. bilineata and C. bilineatus the same and what about the size difference?

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Soldier beetle - Atalantycha bilineata Soldier beetle - Atalantycha bilineata
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Contributed by Charles Schurch Lewallen on 10 April, 2005 - 4:44pm
Last updated 15 April, 2005 - 10:06pm

Formerly in Cantharis
Ancistronycha bilineata was formerly in Cantharis. I think that's what you've got--they are super common in spring. That species is on the checklist of Beetles of Oklahoma as Ancistronycha bilineatus.

Could you be in error about the size? 15 mm is quite large for a beetle. I photograph a scale when I can because judgments about size by eye are just not very reliable.

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina
… Cotinis, 11 April, 2005 - 7:05am login or register to post comments

 
Ancistronycha
Well, I GUESS I could be wrong about the size.
I seem to remember that I was wrong once before about something.
I believe that it was about 10mm though.
Thanks Patrick for the information.
… Charles Schurch Lewallen, 11 April, 2005 - 12:34pm login or register to post comments

 
size of this beetle
I went back and looked at the size of beetles I had photographed close to a scale, and I was getting more like 7 or 8 mm. The size reported in Dillon (1) was what I quoted in the guide, and that gave an upper end of 7.5 mm. That was surely based on specimens, and they might shrink or curl a bit. So 7 or 8 is pretty close to 10--same order of magnitude, as they say.

I've been wrong about just a thing or two in my life as well, but it hasn't been recently, that I can recall. Of course my memory is not what it used to be.

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina
… Cotinis, 11 April, 2005 - 2:20pm login or register to post comments

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