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Photo#275737
ID for Casebearer in California? - Pachybrachis hybridus

ID for Casebearer in California? - Pachybrachis hybridus
Webb Canyon, ~2000 ft. altitude, Los Angeles County, California, USA
May 6, 2009
Size: ~3.5 mm
When I first rescued this one from the pool, I thought that I had found another C. s. sanguinicollis, but on closer inspection I now think it might possibly be a Pachybrachis species. Hartmut Wisch had mentioned to me (in reference to my last casebearer) that there were some very similar-looking Pachybrachis species and pointed me to this page on the Cedar Creek website. (Please see the 4th specimen on the page.) The things that I observed to be different from the Cryptocephalus species I found earlier were the significant amount of punctation on the pronotum and the lack of luster, the slightly smaller overall size, and also the noticeably longer antennae.

I'm sorry that the quality of these images is not better. The pronotum was actually significantly more orange/red than it appears here. Hopefully these are good enough for someone to at least confirm my suspicions regarding the genus!

Mixed oak & chaparral habitat.

Images of this individual: tag all
ID for Casebearer in California? - Pachybrachis hybridus ID for Casebearer in California? - Pachybrachis hybridus ID for Casebearer in California? - Pachybrachis hybridus

Moved

 
Awesome!
Ed, thank you so much for the species ID! This was one nice looking beetle and I am very pleased to have a name for it.

I think I actually might have encountered this species again under more natural (i.e., less water-logged) circumstances... I'll check my photo archives and post if I come up with anything compelling.

Moved
Moved from Cryptocephalini.

I'm curious, too
Harsi, I think you could brighten your images quite a bit in a photo editing program. If you know what the real colors are and try to get there - I think no harm is done (and you loose very little detail by brightening) It also looks as if the white-balance of your camera should be adjusted. (and Joyce Gross taught me to give the guys a bath or at least a soft brushing before the photo shoot (-: )

 
Replaced image...
...with the newly edited one. Hopefully, my attempts to brighten the image and adjust the colors are helpful. The color of the pronotum does look more accurate now. I will also attempt to investigate the white-balance settings on my camera.

Margarethe, it's funny you should mention giving it a bath... I had just rescued it from the time it spent floating in the pool, but as you can see there is quite a lot of detritus (much of it quite sticky) which tends to coat the critters that I pull out. What do you use to give it a "soft brushing"? I definitely wouldn't want to risk injuring the already pool-traumatized insects...

 
Cleaning beetles
they are dry and dusty when I brush them - and my brush is just one of my soft marten-brushes from my watercolors. It doesn't hurt the beetles at all.

 
Brilliant
One of my recent beetles got a tiny photoshoot, but I decided to try again in the morning because it was late. It spent the night gnawing on the container (I could hear it - loud) and in the morning it was close to useless because it was covered in what may be plastic scraps. I don't paint but I have a little brush I used to use when I grew tiny hot peppers in the house. Pollination is required to get peppers and they were indoor plants. Nothing would have hurt this guy.

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