black beetle with 2 orange stripes - Ellychnia megista

Moved

Moved from California Glowworm.

Only two species in Santa Cruz Mnts area per Fender(1970) and the more-or-less parallel inner edges of the red pronotal vittae here indicate E. megista (rather than E. californica, where the inner edges diverge front-to-back and have a noticeable semi-circular indentation at posterior end).

… Aaron Schusteff, 16 June, 2012 - 2:17pm

Moved

Moved from Pyropyga nigricans.

… v belov, 10 December, 2010 - 10:26pm

Definitely Ellychnia

... based on size, habitus and second antennomere longer than wide. This is probably E. californica.

… Stephen Luk, 10 December, 2010 - 5:02pm

thanks a lot for checking these

… v belov, 10 December, 2010 - 10:27pm

Moved tentatively

Moved from ID Request.

… v belov, 22 October, 2010 - 7:32pm

the black firefly

Thanks so much for ID-ing it. One thing I don't understand. This insect was about one inch long and all the info I've looked up on this guy puts the maximum size at 8.5 mm.....which is way smaller. Maybe this was a gargantuan one !?

… nature4me, 23 October, 2010 - 8:08am

How measured?

How did you measure size? People tend to overestimate the size of insects using only the eye.

… John F. Carr, 23 October, 2010 - 6:48pm

this Pyropyga nigricans

This insect was at about my eye-level ( I'm 5'6" ). I didn't measure it with a tape measure or ruler as I don't carry those with me....plus this insect would have flown off had I come any closer. However, I am fairly good at estimating sizes of insects....and it was definitely larger than one centimeter. ( I'm very familiar with the metric system.) And this type of firefly is recorded as being max 8.5mm as I understand it. SO...although one's eye is not the best of measuring instruments.....my first thumb joint from the nail equals about one inch. Hence estimating one inch is not hard. Plus the dead flowerhead had a diameter of just over one inch.

… nature4me, 23 October, 2010 - 7:21pm