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Photo#103706
Unknown small beetle - Pelonides quadrinotata - male

Unknown small beetle - Pelonides quadrinotata - Male
Williamson County, Texas, USA
April 16, 2007
Size: <10mm
This small, bright-red, spotted beetle was on one of the flowers of a cluster (Drummond wild onion) where a butterfly had perched...the butterfly caught my attention, but flew away before I could photograph it. This didn't.

The most striking feature is those branched antennae, like reindeer antlers...but the color and the spots are also intriguing. I'm thinking the pale powdery stuff on its back is probably pollen (?) but I don't know. I looked for it in Kaufman & Eaton, but I just don't know enough about beetles to know where to start. (I think it's an adult beetle because I spotted the "seam" running down the middle of its back.)

The picture was taken about 4 pm; it was breezy, with increasing clouds, but the light was still very good. As with all the pictures I took today, the wind was moving the flower the beetle sat on, so I apologize for it not being perfectly sharp.

Sure hope someone knows what this is.

Moved

Moved
Moved from Checkered Beetles.

Moved
Moved from Checkered Beetles.

Cleridae
Cleridae

 
Thank you
...any idea which genus? Right now it's on the list as "very small red beetle with spots and anterlike antennae."

 
The good news is
I'm guessing you have a new genus for the bugguide, the bad news is that means I have no idea what it is

 
At least two genera
have antennae of this configuration:
Charie*ssa and Orthop*leura

 
Thanks...
For the info and the links. I looked at the entries for both in the guide...to my untutored eye it looks a bit more like the O. damicornis, except of course in color.

Interesting little bug--never saw one before.

 
rather, Pelonides quadripunctatum
this one looks to be Pelonides quadripunctatum Say 1823 (Enoplium), a nice description and line drawing in Downie and Arnett, with distribution stated to include Texas :)

addendum: web search turns up these images from Mike Quinn in Texas!

 
Wow! Thanks!
Thanks, Tim, for both the ID and the link to Mike Quinn's pictures. Bastrop County (where those images were made) is south and east of us, but not that far away.

There are too many beetles...I would never have found it on my own.

I notice that there are no other Pelonides species listed at BugGuide (at least, when I searched on the genus, your comment is all that came up) so maybe we need a guide page?

 
Moved to "Checkered Beetles" in guide
I went on and moved it from ID request to "Checkered Beetles".

 
You're Good!
:-)

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