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Photo#2194110
a gathering of beetles - male - female

a gathering of beetles - Male Female
Forks of Salmon, Siskiyou County, California, USA
November 5, 2022
Size: different sizes for 4 dif
Next to the river, on old milkweed and on a dead madrone branch were clusters of beetles of two? three? four? types in piles and all around. They broke up some before I got the camera but these remained. The smallest red ones averaged .3cm, the blue/black ones went from .5 - 1cm, the all orange ones and the shiny black with red spot on the back were both about 1.5cm, and the orange/black ones were 1 to 1.5cm

Images of this individual: tag all
a gathering of beetles - male - female a gathering of beetles - male - female

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Not beetles but bugs
Look to be genus Largus

 
Largus
They are all the same species at different stages?

 
Two species...
...in two different superfamilies. Those in the first shot are Largus, except for the individual at the upper center with two black spots on the abdomen. That's Lygaeus kalmii. Those in the second shot are L. kalmii, except for one Largus nymph at the right.

 
probably what confusing me (a
probably what confusing me (amateur enthusiast that I am) is why would there be so many stages of maturity all together at once and in the cold wet fall? There only seems to be one adult, maybe two in the photos I took.

 
..in two different superfamil
..in two different superfamilies. Those in the first shot are Largus, except for the individual at the upper center with two black spots on the abdomen. That's Lygaeus kalmii. Those in the second shot are L. kalmii, except for one Largus nymph at the right.
OK, I found the Largus kalmii in my book. I am still wondering if the tiny red shiny ones hiding under other black ones, the all black ones, the black ones with a red spot AND the all orange ones are the same?
The orange nymphs in the 2nd photo looks in my book like Onocopeltus fasciatus.

 
The red shiny ones...
...the black ones, the black ones with a red spot and the orange ones are all Largus nymphs at different stages of maturity. The orange ones have just molted, and haven't yet darkened into their final colors. I see just one Largus adult. It's in the first photo at the upper left. It's black with an orange border around its abdomen.

The nymphs in the second photo are definitely Lygaeus and not Oncopeltus. Note the slanted black lines on the pronotum (the part of the thorax directly behind the head). Those are not present in Oncopeltus nymphs.

As to why they're all in the same place, I suppose they all find it to their liking in one way or another. You'd really have to ask them. :)

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