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Photo#172621
Beetle - Meloe americanus

Beetle - Meloe americanus
Sand Springs, Osage County, Oklahoma, USA
March 10, 2008
Size: 15.8mm (5/8")
Ok, I'm certainly no fitness trainer but this beetle definitely needs to call Jenny Craig....or a proctologist. Wow !

Notice the orange excretions. Also notice the second pic. I didn't crop it all the way because....is that beetle droppings ?

Found under some wood. Please help with ID.

Images of this individual: tag all
Beetle - Meloe americanus Beetle - Meloe americanus

Meloe americanus Leach
John Pinto det.

Moved from Oil Beetles.

also similar
Genus Megetra is similar too, but I'm not sure which this one is.

blister beetle?
Reminds me of Meloe, although it doesn't seem to be shiny blue. Blister beetles exude a fluid that gives you blisters if you touch it, so that may explain the orange excretions.
Not sure about the droppings, although blister beetles eat foliage, so I wouldn't be surprised if they have chunky droppings like that. (A lot of adult insects would have more liquidy droppings.)

 
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A blister beetle was what it made me think of but I've never seen one with this unusual size. And, you're right, it doesn't have that blue tint.

 
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The size is good - the Audubon guide says 1/2 to 5/8" for Meloe angusticollis. It also says 'dark metallic blue to violet-black.' Yours looks just plain black to me... but Nearctica lists 20 species for this genus.
The blister stuff is exuded from leg joints, so that's definitely what's going on there.
I've been meaning to look into what droppings of leaf-eating beetles look like, actually, so I appreciate the other photo--not definitive, but it does make you wonder...

 
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I just don't see how it gets around being shaped like that.

 
slowly!
from what i've seen. they always seem half dead when i find them, but i think that's just how they are.
yeah, they're pretty ridiculous.
their life cycle is crazy - the larvae start out with long legs; they climb up plants and wait on flowers, then ride solitary bees back to their nests, where they get all fat and grublike and eat the provisions and larvae.

 
Wow !
Cool !