Nitidulidae, Flower Petal Miner - Caplothorax melanopterus - BugGuide.Net

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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Polyphaga » Series Cucujiformia » Cucujoidea » Nitidulid series » Sap-feeding Beetles (Nitidulidae) » Carpophilinae » Caplothorax » Caplothorax melanopterus

Photo#1338704

Copyright © 2017 MJ Hatfield

Nitidulidae, Flower Petal Miner - Caplothorax melanopterus

Elk Horn, south of, Shelby County, Iowa, USA
June 28, 2016

Meandering at night at this farm yard, found lots more of interest than I would have expected given that there is corn in all directions. Looking at the Yucca found a Yucca Moth but also flower petal miners. I'm not familiar with this sort of thing.
I didn't look any closer but will look again this coming June.

2 different miners

Images of this individual: tag all

Nitidulidae, Flower Petal Miner - Caplothorax melanopterus

Nitidulidae, Flower Petal Miner - Caplothorax melanopterus

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Contributed by MJ Hatfield on 10 February, 2017 - 8:56pm
Last updated 13 April, 2017 - 3:23pm

Moved

Moved from Unidentified Leaf Mines.

Figured it out! I did a BugGuide search for "yucca", and saw this photo

which reminded me of the larva in the blog post I linked to, and the guide page confirmed that Carpophilus melanopterus larvae mine in the flowers. With a little more searching I found Mary Murtfeldt's account of having discovered this over 100 years ago, here. "As a micro-lepidopterist I was naturally disappointed to find, upon examination, that these were coleopterous larvae, but determined to make the attempt to rear them. . ." Glad her curiosity got the better of her!

… Charley Eiseman, 13 February, 2017 - 2:57pm

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I am thrilled!

Thank you so much.
I've been curious about those beetles for some time now.

Yippee!
Always glad when curiosity gets the better of you as well.

Did you upgrade Info page? Please and thank you.

… MJ Hatfield, 14 February, 2017 - 7:57am

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Please do keep an eye out for more

I've seen a photo of this once before, from Nebraska, and I don't believe it's anything that's ever been reared. My impression before was that it was some kind of fly larva, but from what I can see in your second photo there seems to be a head capsule, so I wonder if it could be a prodoxid of some sort.

Apparently they're in Wisconsin too--see the end of this post.

… Charley Eiseman, 13 February, 2017 - 7:15am

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