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Photo#1047697
Unknown beetle - Microlipus moerens

Unknown beetle - Microlipus moerens
Savary Island, British Columbia, Canada
May 5, 2010
On Rubus ursinis petal

Moved tentatively
Moved from Malachiini.

hmmm... intriguing... reminds me of some European Charopus
...but that genus does not seem to occur in N. America
will revisit
please try to find more of those and take sharper pics so we have better evidence to work with

Moved from ID Request.

 
Malachini
Malachius moerens ? colour
Spencer Entomological Collection, Beatty Biodiversity Museum,UBC

 
ha! you certainly have a point
thanks, Liz.
i can see the similarity but the habitus is still too elongate and elytra too long in those captured by your camera -- but they may be males (the one on the UBC photo is clearly a female)

typical Malachius look rather different, but the taxonomy of the nearctic melyrids is far from being settled and many spp. need to be moved to different genera from where they have been traditionally assigned

 
Malachini
I'm a total novice. Are these different beetles specific to particular plant species or generalists?

 
not really herbivores
larvae are predators; adults are mixed feeders and will take all sorts of organic stuff, incl. live prey and pollen wherever available