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Genus Nemognatha

Beetle - Nemognatha piazata Nemognatha #3 - Nemognatha punctulata Nemognatha? - Nemognatha punctulata Blister Beetle - Nemognatha nigripennis beetle on flower - Nemognatha piazata Blister Beetle species - Nemognatha punctulata Nemognatha nigripennis Unidentified - Nemognatha
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 Nemognathinae
Tribe Nemognathini
Genus Nemognatha
Explanation of Names
Nemognatha Illiger 1807
'thread-like jaw'
Numbers
28 spp. in 4 subgenera in our area(1), ~50 in New World, ~80 worldwide(2); selected local faunas: 4 spp. in Canada(3), 4 in NC(4), 3 in FL(5), 14 in CA(6), 1 in NH(7), 7 in OK(8), 10 in AZ
Size
5.5-15 mm
Identification
separation from Zonitis remains problematic; species are very difficult to identify, our spp. are separated by aedeagus structure(2); key to spp. in(9)
Range
Worldwide (except Australasia); throughout the New World except for the cold high latitudes(2); in our area, more diverse in the west
Season
spring, summer
Food
larval hosts: solitary bees of several families(2); adults: nectar and pollen, especially of Asteraceae(10)
Life Cycle
Females lay eggs on flowers, larvae attach to visiting bees and are carried to bee nests(11)
Remarks
mouthparts (maxillae) very long (used to suck nectar)(12)
Works Cited
1.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.
2.The New World genera of Meloidae (Coleoptera): a key and synopsis
Pinto J.D., Bologna M.A. 1999. J. Nat. Hist. 33: 569‒620.
3.Bousquet Y., ed. (1991) Checklist of the beetles of Canada and Alaska
4.NCSU insect collection species inventory database
5.A Distributional Checklist of the Beetles (Coleoptera) of Florida
6.California Beetle Project
7.University of New Hampshire Insect and Arachnid Collections
8.Checklist of the Coleoptera of Oklahoma
9. A revision of the genera Nemognatha, Zonitis, and Pseudozonitis (Coleoptera, Meloidae) in America north of Mexico, with....
Enns, W.R. 1956. University of Kansas Scientific Bulletin 37(17): 685-909.
10.Field Guide to Beetles of California
Arthur V. Evans and James N. Hogue. 2006. University of California Press.
11.Peterson Field Guides: Beetles
Richard E. White. 1983. Houghton Mifflin Company.
12.The Natural History of Pollination
Michael Proctor, Peter Yeo, and Andrew Lack. 1996.