short-winged blister beetle - Meloe campanicollis

Short winged Blister Beetle in Southern Oregon

Found a beetle that looks identical to this last night. It was close to freezing temps, January 8! Can't find any references to it having been found in Oregon previously. Fortunately, didn't touch it before identifying it!

… animalia1, 9 January, 2018 - 9:05am

Meloe campanicollis Pinto & Selander

John Pinto det.

Moved from Oil Beetles.

… v belov, 5 June, 2009 - 9:59pm

Male Meloe sp.

Those crimps in his antennae are used somehow to aid the mating process. It appeared to me that by rubbing the female's antennae with these crooks, the much larger female was made motionless so the male could back up along her abdomen and attempt copulation. I suspect there is more than a tactile sensation involved -- that chemicals are somehow used to stun her, hopefully into a blissful state.

Here's a male using them on a female:

… Jim McClarin, 25 November, 2005 - 7:40pm

Thanks, Jim!

Those antenna are really distinctive. It's interesting how poisonous creatures manage to avoid being killed by their own (or their mate's) toxins.
I've added some more close-up images of him. Thanks for sharing the details. I didn't know there was such a dangerous creature living in my yard!

Sue

… Sue Beatrice, 25 November, 2005 - 8:54pm

I've handled them

but I've never gotten blisters. I've had one leak a fair amount of oil-consitency yellow fluid (they're also called Oil Beetles) in the palm of my hand where the skin is naturally tougher, but I washed it off within a couple minutes and nothing happened. I would definitely keep them off of thin-skinned areas and off of your sandwich!! ;-)

btw, canthardin is the active ingredient in Spanish Fly, a date-rape drug of the street for many decades -- maybe 100 years or more. It's also a much-sought commodity by a couple other families of beetles, the males of which find a blister beetle, lick off the canthardin and incorporate it into their sperm packet to tranfer to the female. It then presumably protects the eggs from being eaten. Among Pyro*chroidae, a male that has not consumed enough (or any) canthardin is rejected as a suitor.

… Jim McClarin, 26 November, 2005 - 5:15am