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Genus Meloe - Oil Beetles

Meloe  - Meloe campanicollis - female campanicollis? - Meloe campanicollis meloid - Meloe campanicollis Blister Beetle 1b - Meloe Which Meloe? - Meloe - male Oil Beetle - Meloe - female Meloe impressus - Meloe Meloe campanicollis - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Tenebrionoidea
Family Meloidae (Blister Beetles)
Subfamily Meloinae
Genus Meloe (Oil Beetles)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Nearctic fauna revised in (1)
Explanation of Names
Meloe Linnæus 1758
the common name refers to the oily liquid exuding from the joints
Numbers
22 spp. in our area(2), >150 total, arranged into 16 subgenera(3)
Not yet in the Guide:
M. (Treiodous) afer Bland, 1864 [wUS]
M. (Eurymeloe) aleuticus Borchmann 1942 [AK]
M. californicus Van Dyke, 1928 [CA]
M. exiguus Pinto & Selander, 1970 [Midwest]
M. nebulosus Pinto & Selander, 1970 [NM]
M. quadricollis Van Dyke, 1928 [CA]
M. vandykei Pinto & Selander, 1970 [wNA]
(last five: subgenus Meloe)
Size
12‒30 mm(4) NB: on species pages, length indicated from frons of head to apex of elytra
Identification
Hind wings absent; elytra reduced and overlap at base. Males smaller than females, with modified antennae:
Range
Primarily holarctic (mostly Palaearctic), with meager representation in more southern areas; throughout NA (to nw. Colombia; Hispaniola)(2)(3)
Habitat
Ground or low foliage(4)
Food
Larvae feed on eggs and other food in bees' nests(4)
Life Cycle
In some species, triungulins aggregate and use chemical signals to attract male bees to which they attach themselves. This allows transport (and transfer) to a female bee who carries them back to her nest (Saul-Gershenz & Millar 2006)
First-instar larvae climb to the top of a plant in numbers, clump together in the shape of a female bee, exude a scent imitating the female bee pheromone. When a male bee tries to mate with the clump, the larvae clamp onto his hairs and eventually get to female bees when he mates for real. Impregnated female bees build nests in burrows; triungulins move to the nests and feed on honey and pollen stocked by the bee for her young. ―Jim McClarin
Remarks
In males of some species mid-antennal segments are modified, and the c-shaped ‘kinks’ (antennomeres V–VII) grasp female antennae during pre-mating displays(5)
Our only representative of the worldwide tribe Meloini that contains 3 genera in the New World alone(3)
Works Cited
1.The bionomics of blister beetles of the genus Meloe and a classification of the New World species
Pinto J.D., Selander R.B. 1970. Ill. Biol. Monogr. 42: 1‒222.
2.American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea
Arnett, R.H., Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
3.The New World genera of Meloidae (Coleoptera): a key and synopsis
Pinto J.D., Bologna M.A. 1999. J. Nat. Hist. 33: 569‒620.
4.Peterson Field Guides: Beetles
Richard E. White. 1983. Houghton Mifflin Company.
5.Size, mating success and courtship pattern in the Meloidae (Coleoptera)
Pinto J., Mayor A. 1986. Ann. Ent. Soc. Am. 79: 597–604.