Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Alobates

Tenebrionid - Alobates pensylvanicus black beetle - Alobates pensylvanicus Alobates sp.? - Alobates pensylvanicus Darkling Beetle - Alobates pensylvanicus 9051465 Teneb - Alobates Alobates pensylvanica? - Alobates pensylvanicus Tenebrionidae? - Alobates Tenebrionidae? - Alobates
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Tenebrionoidea
Family Tenebrionidae (Darkling Beetles)
Subfamily Stenochiinae
Tribe Cnodalonini
Genus Alobates
Explanation of Names
Alobates Motschulsky 1872
Likely from Greek alo (variant of allo) 'other' + bates 'one who treads/haunts'(1)
Numbers
2 spp. in our area(2)
Size
17-23 mm(3)
Identification
Key to species:
Mentum smooth, without tuft of long yellowish setae---> pensylvanicus
Mentum with tuft of long yellowish setae---> barbatus
Range
e. North America, A.pensylvanicus into Mexico(2)
Habitat
under bark on dead standing trees(3)
Season
All year under bark
Works Cited
1.Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms
Donald J. Borror. 1960. Mayfield Publishing Company.
2.American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea
Arnett, R.H., Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
3.The Darkling Beetles of Florida and Eastern United States