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Photo#24105
Philonthus cyanipennis - Philonthus caeruleipennis

Philonthus cyanipennis - Philonthus caeruleipennis
Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, USA
July 12, 2005
Size: 15 - 16 mm

Images of this individual: tag all
Philonthus cyanipennis - Philonthus caeruleipennis Philonthus cyanipennis - Philonthus caeruleipennis Philonthus cyanipennis - Philonthus caeruleipennis

Moved

 
Hi Tom,
I forget if I commented to say thank you for getting the skinny on these from Don and moving them for me. So thanks (twice maybe)!

Philonthus, perhaps, species possibilities
Dillon, p. 195 (description), plate XX #19, illustrates Philonthus cyanipennis, says: "Elongate, robust; black, shining; elytra metallic blue or green, antennae and tarsi piceous. Head quadrate, as wide as or wider than pronotum..." (1)

The description seems to match, to my untrained eye, especially the color of the elytra and other parts. I don't see anything inconsistent in the technical description. Length given as 12-15 mm.

Hmm, here's an image from Eurasia. Seems rather chunkier than your beetle. Other Philonthus shown on that page look closer in shape to yours. Well, it's a hypothesis.

Aha! Another similar-looking beetle: Philonthus caeruleipennis, shown at Insects of Quebec. Length is given as 8 mm, a bit small for yours. (It looks smaller than 16 mm compared to the penny in your photo--a penny is about 19 mm diamter, and the beetle looks about half or two-thirds of the diamter--hard to tell exactly.)

Another image of Philonthus caeruleipennis here.

Well, I do like genus Philonthus.

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

 
I'll re-measure
Hi Patrick. I inadvertantly destroyed all shots of this beetle next to millimeter rule. I try to keep at least one, even if image is out of focus, for purposes of yielding a precise measurement. However, I still have the beetle and 3 - 4 more like it that I pulled out of the carrion trap last night.

I had hastily judged the beetle to be about three quarters the diameter of the penny because it was longer than another beetle that I hastily figured at half the diameter. You know what they say, "Haste makes waste," and now I have to re-do it!!

Anyway, thanks for steering me on this one. I'll do some Web image comparisons myself once I've got a good measurement.

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