Download high resolution image here.

I caught this in a UV trap at night. When I dropped it in alcohol to kill it, 31 long-legged phoretic Mesostigata mites attached to its ventral surface jumped off, landing in a dispersed pattern over a period of about 5 seconds. I posted images of them here:


The beetle was orginally covered in a hard dirt-like material (typical of the family). The material, though, was cemented on and very difficult to remove. I soaked it in ammonia solution for couple hours and gave it a vigorous scrubbing with a Tooltron Micro Applicator Brush. A thin venier remain on much of the surface. It's a tough beetle, but I was concerned it would break apart if I scrubbed hard enough to remove the rest.

From the key of Vaurie 1955(1), the hastate scuttelum, fully developed wings, bare tuberculate elytra, and shape of pronotal margin identify this beetle as Omorgus suberosus.

This image is derived from a stack of 96 images with a 113 micron step taken with a reversed Leitz Focotar-2 50mm F/4.5 enlarging lens set to F/5.6 + extension tube + Nikon D300 camera, and processed with CombineZP software.