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Photo#212533
Beetle - Dicaelus purpuratus

Beetle - Dicaelus purpuratus
Sand Springs, Osage County, Oklahoma, USA
August 10, 2008
Size: 16mm (5/8")
No, it's not dead. It's just cold from being in the icebox (refrigerator for you city folks and young-uns). For some reason this beetle had an adverse reaction to the cold. Usually critters I put in the icebox to "chill" so they'll calm down long enough to get pics of them come out of it fairly quickly but this particular beetle had a lot of trouble with it. It was not in there very long at all and, given it's size, it usually takes longer to slow them down but this beetle all but curled up and died. I had to capture it and chill it because it was very active and there was no chance of getting any pics without doing this. But never fear, it finally came out of it and was going 90 miles per hour again then I let it go.

I saw one of these last year but didn't get to get any pics of it and have been looking for another one ever since. I've seen this species two other times since then but, of course, I didn't have my camera. Finally I found this one in the woods but, as I said, it is very quick so I caught it and took it back to the house to chill it.

Any ideas why it had such a bad reaction to the cold ?

Please help with ID.

Images of this individual: tag all
Beetle - Dicaelus purpuratus Beetle - Dicaelus purpuratus Beetle - Dicaelus purpuratus Beetle - Dicaelus purpuratus Beetle - Dicaelus purpuratus

Moved tentatively

Carabidae - Licinini - Dicaelus
Despite your nice set of images, I have become less inclined to suggest species name for any BugGuide image unless it is obvious to me.

 
....
About the only one I saw that looked close was Dicaelus purpuratus but even it doesn't appear to be an exact match.

Yesterday I also looked through all of my field guides and I didn't see anything close in any of them.

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