Black & Red Striped Beetle? - Megetra cancellata

Megetra Cancellata

I saw two of these while watering my garden at dusk in NW New Mexico (elevation about 5,000 feet). What can you tell me about them? Are they a pest, or are they helpful. Will they hurt me?

… Georgina Davis, 15 August, 2015 - 9:59pm

Moved

Moved from Megetra.

… Hartmut Wisch, 10 September, 2008 - 5:35pm

Megatra species

We used to call this beetle a "football player beetle" when I lived in Gallup in the 60s. I'm back there now and there are quite a few of them around. I'd like more information on distribution, proper name of the species, etc.

… Robert Koops, 30 August, 2006 - 7:48pm

probably Megetra cancellata

according to Stanislav Krejcik of www.meloidae.com. I contacted his with your request for ID. He would like to examine a specimen to be sure. If interested, why not check out http://www.meloidae.com/exchange/index.htm if you would like to receive a European beetle in exchange or contact him by email at info@meloidae.com if you just want to send him a specimen in a well-packaged small glass vial of alcohol.

… Jim McClarin, 31 August, 2006 - 9:38pm

I agree with M. cancellata, Jim -

since the broadly reticulated pattern is clearly visible, and matches the type at Harvard. The others will take a bit more looking - I'll check out the Selander revision of this genus tomorrow.

… Hartmut Wisch, 9 September, 2008 - 3:36pm

Great!

If tomorrow's investigation doesn't say otherwise, go ahead and move it to a species page.

… Jim McClarin, 9 September, 2008 - 5:55pm

Clearly M. cancellata -

looked at a series of these this morning. Unclear from photo which gender this is, so I took the 'female' notation off. Males can range in size & inflatedness as do females. One has to look at the actual specimen.
Tomorrow, I'll be looking at the specimens of the three species they have at UC Riverside, basically to complement what I'm learning from the paper by Selander. I've started filling in information on the INFO pages for these, but its still a work in progress.

… Hartmut Wisch, 10 September, 2008 - 5:53pm

To see other images

click here.

… Jim McClarin, 8 November, 2005 - 7:01pm

I'm impressed!

Hey, I'm impressed that the submitter determined it was a beetle! He also got the best image of this thing.

… Eric R. Eaton, 9 November, 2005 - 12:46pm

Excellent shot

Whenever I see a posting of good image of an extra-interesting beetle like this one, I feel a twinge of regret that I don't live in that area "where all the interesting beetles are." Of course others might have the same reaction to a few of my images from New Hampshire...

btw, this one's obviously a female. They lay a *lot* of eggs, hence the very large abdomen and voracious diet of living plants.

… Jim McClarin, 9 November, 2005 - 3:31pm

Beetle

I think this is a blister beetle in the genus Megetra

… Christopher C Wirth, 8 November, 2005 - 6:58pm