Red - Beetle - Dictyopterus aurora

Dictyopterus aurora or Pyropterus nigroruber

Greetings. From the information given above I have begun searching the internet to see if I could find out where the "Golden" part of the name comes from. I have not found that out but did run across this page.

http://www.meloidae.com/brouci/datacol/lycidae.html

My question is now, from the photos on this page, is this beetle a Dictyopterus aurora or Pyropterus nigroruber? I am thinking it is the latter.

… dcg, 7 March, 2006 - 5:26pm

Fixed kink

http://www.meloidae.com/brouci/datacol/lycidae.html

Dictyopterus aurora has a red margin on the pronotum like this one whereas Pyropterus nigroruber's pronotum is all black. Considering this feature and the range, D. aurora seems most likely.

… Jim McClarin, 7 March, 2006 - 8:33pm

Thanks for the id. I was mai

Thanks for the id. I was mainly looking at the head color. (I am not an expert on insects, I just like taking photos of them :) ) I will mark my photo as a Dictyopterus aurora (Golden Net-Wing).

dcg

… dcg, 8 March, 2006 - 8:48am

Pyropterus nigroruber, not North American

See NA list. While not 100% reliable, 5 spp. of Dictyopterus are listed - don't know the ranges off hand. auratus means golden - have no idea what the author was thinking.

… Phillip Harpootlian, 7 March, 2006 - 6:08pm

aurora- not aurata

Aurora was goddess of the dawn in Roman mythology.

… Chuck Entz, 8 March, 2006 - 3:06am

possible, or ...

I assumed 'aurora' was a derivation of 'aurata' because of the common name - could be wrong of course. It isn't entirely clear what the connection is with goddess of the dawn - red sky at dawn? Another definition of Aurora is; Northern or southern lights: a phenomenon occurring in the night sky around the polar regions, caused by atmospheric gases interacting with solar particles to create streamers, folds, or arches of colored light. Maybe this describes the wavy red elytra?
Some of those connections are really obscure. You also have cases like Carabus auratus - which is mostly green - some 'gold' on the elytral margins.

… Phillip Harpootlian, 8 March, 2006 - 7:52am

Common Names

I wouldn't be surprised if it were something on the order of the "Agressive" House Spider (specific epithet agrestis). There are a lot of bad common names out there because people guessed at translation of the scientific names.

See the "Individual Moth Changes topic" in the Forums for an example of what can go wrong when one assumes others know what they're doing.

… Chuck Entz, 8 March, 2006 - 2:36pm

http://bugguide.net/node/view/16588

golden netwing? i know the golden dosent make seve but look at the link....

… Andy Varsho, 7 March, 2006 - 2:29pm

Golden Netwing

I agree. I wonder why they were named Golden? Sorry I should have mentioned that I think it's Dictyopterus aurora and given you a link to the guide page. I don't know what that other species is you mentioned, but all the sites I looked up seemed to be foreign.

… Lynette Schimming, 7 March, 2006 - 2:38pm

I love the net winged beetles!

I find them fascinating.

… Brittanie Christina McCormack, 22 June, 2006 - 1:39pm