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Photo#634128
Acrocerid - Ocnaea auripilosa - female

Acrocerid - Ocnaea auripilosa - Female
Carr Canyon, Cochise County, Arizona, USA
April 16, 2012
Found on underside of rock that was sitting on sandy soil near creek, lower parking area.

Ocnaea, I presume. Correction welcome.

Images of this individual: tag all
Acrocerid - Ocnaea auripilosa - female Acrocerid - Ocnaea auripilosa - female Acrocerid - Ocnaea auripilosa - female

Moved
Moved from Ocnaea.

Ocnaea female
The male to this species would most likely have dark (black or metallic-blue) maculae on the pronotum and abdominal segments. What a great find! We really have so few specimens of these from the southwest that there are likely to be a number of still undescribed species out there (and this is probably one of them). The adults in this genus do not have well developed mouth parts, and so cannot be collected at flowers. They can be strong fliers (at least the males), so the fact that you are holding it in you hand to take the pictures would have caused me to have a heart attack! ;-) Since they are rarely seen and collected this is a gem!

 
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Thanks Dennis.

I was very careful to check it's ability to fly before I handled it in such a manner. Didn't seem too capable at the time. Can't remember what time I found it, but max temp in Sierra Vista that day was low 70's. Plus it was on underside of rock. So maybe it was too cool to fly off fast.

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