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Photo#39778
Lycid larvae? - Lycostomus sanguineus

Lycid larvae? - Lycostomus sanguineus
Dona Ana County, New Mexico, USA
December 26, 2005
Size: 20 - 21 mm
Three found together under stone on ridge top, lower slopes of Organ Mountains. Very slow moving, which is one reason I think they are lycids, not lampyrids. The other reason is the absence of any light-producing segments on their underside. Since all three were together, my guess is that their color/pattern differences represent variability in a single species, not different species.

Images of this individual: tag all
Lycid larvae? - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid larvae? - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid larvae? - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid larvae? - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid pupa - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid pupa - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid pupa, getting colorful! - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid pupa, getting colorful! - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid pupa, getting colorful! - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid emerges - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid emerges - Lycostomus sanguineus Lycid emerges - Lycostomus sanguineus All grown up! - Lycostomus sanguineus Head & pronutum (and mites!) - Lycostomus sanguineus Head & pronutum (and mites!) - Lycostomus sanguineus

I'm very impressed with your
I'm very impressed with your rearing and hope you'll take further observations on this extraordinary species...I'll email to you directly with more info

Moved
Moved from Lycus.

Dead/alive
I was disappointed when first one, then another, and finally all three of these larvae died, or at least quit moving. I almost put them in alcohol, but decided to watch their little corpses decompose instead. Two days ago, without my eyeglasses, I peered at their bodies: one, two three, four! Now wait a minute!

I put on my glasses and poked at them with a camel-hair paintbrush. One appeared to be alive and another was splitting open with what I first thought was a fungal growth. The live one was definitely alive and the fungal growth turned out to be a pupa, whether alive or dead I can't tell since it wouldn't move like most pupae do. The third might actually be dead, but I'll wait and see. The fourth was the shed skin of the live larva, which, because it was tough and opaque, retained the shape and appearance it had while occupied.

Lycidae
The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension for Yavapai County offers an image of a lycid larva that looks very much like the upper larva in this photo.

The New Mexico Dept. of Game & Fish checklist includes 15 species of family "Beetles, Net-winged" for the state.

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