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Species Necrobia rufipes - Red-legged Ham Beetle

Necrobia rufipes (De Geer) - Necrobia rufipes lots of red-legged ham beetles - Necrobia rufipes Necrobia rufipes? - Necrobia rufipes Beetle ~4.5mm - Necrobia rufipes Necrobia rufipes? - Necrobia rufipes Necrobia rufipes? - Necrobia rufipes Necrobia rufipes? - Necrobia rufipes Redlegged Ham Beetle - Necrobia rufipes
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Cleroidea
Family Cleridae (Checkered Beetles)
Subfamily Korynetinae
Genus Necrobia
Species rufipes (Red-legged Ham Beetle)
Other Common Names
Copra Beetle
Explanation of Names
Necrobia rufipes (De Geer 1775)
rufipes = 'red-legged'
Size
3.5-7.0 mm
Identification
Adult: head, thorax, elytra shiny metallic bluish-green or blackish; underside of abdomen dark blue; legs bright reddish-brown or orange; antennae mainly reddish-brown but with dark brown or black club at tip; sides of thorax and elytra with stiff bristle-like hairs
Larva: body creamy-gray with mottled violet-gray markings on upper surface; head and upper surface of first thoracic segment and last (ninth) abdominal segment with brown hardened plates; 2nd and 3rd thoracic segments also with tiny brownish plates; urogomphi strongly curved upwards
Range
most Nearctic records from sw US - Map (1)(2)(3), native to the Palearctic, now cosmopolitan(4)
Habitat
found on dried fish, skins and bones of dead animals, and other carrion; also found on museum specimens
Season
summer in the north; most of the year in the south; year-round indoors
Food
dried/salt fish, skins and bones of dead animals, museum specimens, cheese, bacon, dried egg yolk, bones and bone meal, dried figs, palm nut kernels, dried coconut (copra), and guano; also prey on eggs/larvae of some flies, of Dermestes spp., and its own species(5)
Life Cycle
Eggs are laid on the food material; larvae pass through three or four instars; the last instar spins a cocoon in which pupation occurs; life-cycle takes 6 weeks or longer depending on food type and physical conditions. Under optimum conditions, the rate of population increase is about 25 times per month. The adults fly actively and can thus easily disperse to new sources of food.
Remarks
major pest of copra and materials of animal origin(1); considered a pest in museums containing specimens of vertebrate animals, as well as in places where dried fish is stored
Print References
Fact sheet (Haines & Rees 1989)
Works Cited
1.Beetles associated with stored products in Canada: An identification guide
Bousquet Y. 1990. Research Branch Agriculture Canada, Publication 1837.
2.The checkered beetles (Coleoptera: Cleridae) of the Maritime Provinces of Canada
Majka C.G. 2006. Zootaxa 1385: 31–46.
3.Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
4.Alien terrestrial arthropods of Europe
Roques A., Kenis M., Lees D., Lopez-Vaamonde C., Rabitsch W., Rasplus J.-Y., Roy D., eds. 2010. BioRisk 4 Special Issue; 2 vols., 1028 pp.
5.Handbook of urban insects and arachnids: A handbook of urban entomology
Robinson W.H. 2005. Cambridge University Press.