Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Glischrochilus quadrisignatus - Four-spotted Sap Beetle

Four-spotted Sap Beetle - Glischrochilus quadrisignatus Four-spotted Sap Beetle - Glischrochilus quadrisignatus Glischrochilus quadrisignatus? - Glischrochilus quadrisignatus Four-spotted Sap Beetle - Glischrochilus quadrisignatus Coleoptera  - Glischrochilus quadrisignatus Glischrochilus quadrisignatus Glischrochilus quadrisignatus (Four-spotted Sap Beetle) - Glischrochilus quadrisignatus Four-spotted Sap Beetle Pupa - Glischrochilus quadrisignatus
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Cucujoidea
No Taxon (Nitidulid series)
Family Nitidulidae (Sap-feeding Beetles)
Subfamily Cryptarchinae
Genus Glischrochilus
No Taxon (subgenus Librodor)
Species quadrisignatus (Four-spotted Sap Beetle)
Other Common Names
Picnic Beetle, Beer Bug
Explanation of Names
Glischrochilus quadrisignatus (Say 1835)
Size
4.0-7.0 mm(1)
Identification
Distinguished from G. fasciatus by smaller elytral blotches (the anterior ones farther apart than the posterior) blotches(2) and from G. sanguinolentus by dark venter (reddish-brown in the latter)(3)
Range
e. NA to PNW (NF-BC to FL-TX-UT) - Map (4)(5)(6); adventive and widespread in Europe
Food
various fermenting substances
association with opened seed pods of Asclepias syriaca (7)
Remarks
attracted by the odor of fermenting fruits and vegetables; fly into beer or soft drinks
Works Cited
1.An annotated checklist of Wisconsin sap and short-winged flower beetles (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae, Kateretidae)
Price M.B., Young D.K. 2006. Insecta Mundi 20: 69‒84.
2.How to identify common nitidulid beetles associated with oak wilt mats in Minnesota
Cervenka V.J., Skalbeck T.C., Kyhl J.F., Blackford D.C., Juzwik J.J., Seybold S.J. 2001. USDA Forest Service, North Central Research Station, St. Paul, MN. HT-71: 1-16.
3.A Manual of Common Beetles of Eastern North America
Dillon, Elizabeth S., and Dillon, Lawrence. 1961. Row, Peterson, and Company.
4.Checklist of beetles (Coleoptera) of Canada and Alaska. Second edition
Bousquet Y., Bouchard P., Davies A.E., Sikes D.S. 2013. ZooKeys 360: 1–402.
5.Beetles of Eastern North America
Arthur V. Evans. 2014. Princeton University Press.
6.Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
7.Survey of Coleoptera collected on the common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, at one site in Ohio
Dailey, P.J., R.C. Graves and J.M. Kingsolver. 1978. The Coleopterists Bulletin, 32(3): 223-229.