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Photo#262635
Small beetle from a rotting Hedgehog Cactus - Cononotus bryanti

Small beetle from a rotting Hedgehog Cactus - Cononotus bryanti
Picture Rocks, NW of Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, USA
March 31, 2009
Size: 4 mm
The cactus suddenly died last year - around it the plants of the same species are thriving. So I suspected weevils and placed the whole thing into a container. But I think it had been dead too long - whatever killed it was gone. There are Diptera pupae in the debris now, little wasps (Ichneumon) and the two species of beetles - this Anthicidae (many) and one Histeridae

teneb, rather
akin to Apocrypha, i guess

 
Cononotus
Looks like Cononotus to me! In Bugguide its under Salpingid but Beetles of America has it under pyrochroid. I would love it for DNA if its still alive! (or frozen).

 
right, right!
i knew i saw its pix before but settled for less nonetheless.
other genera that have spent some time under the 'Cononotidae' umbrella were not too happy about it, either; some returned to Anthicidae, others moved on to join Lagriidae [subsequently annexed by a superpower]...

 
Still alive
how do you want to get them (2)? I think I'll be close to the UoA in a couple of days - wished where to park, though