orange/black beetle - Zonitis vittigera

Moved

… v belov, 16 May, 2009 - 2:38pm

strongly suspect Zonitis vittigera (LeConte)

… v belov, 16 May, 2009 - 11:37am

ID characteristics?

I couldn't find a description of Zonitis vittigera (LeConte, 1853) but the images at Harvard and at U. of Minnesota lack the dark elytral stripes seen in my photos.

What info do you have on this species?

… Robin McLeod, 17 May, 2009 - 12:19pm

Thanks

to Donald Chandler for correcting my previous ID of this one. Image moved from Nemognatha nemorensis to genus page.

There's now several other images on the genus page that have similar color and markings as this one, and I'm wondering whether one or more of them might be N. piazata bicolor (see Update in my previous comment below). The Canadian distribution of that species was listed as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba in this PDF doc but that was in 1991. Maybe things have changed since then (?)

… Robin McLeod, 17 August, 2006 - 7:38pm

ID information

Robin, check the comments by Donald Chandler under this picture.

… tom murray, 16 August, 2006 - 10:54pm

Thanks, Tom

...got it. And I edited a bit of the nemorensis page to reflect the new info.

… Robin McLeod, 17 August, 2006 - 7:55pm

Update

I had assumed (in Jan./06) that this must be nemorensis, as that was the only Nemognatha species listed for Ontario in this PDF doc. So I moved the image from the Meloidae page to the N. nemorensis page.

But, thanks to Donald Chandler's ID (in Aug./06) of Tom Murray's photo as N. nemorensis, that species turns out to be all black except for a dark red pronotum. Other photos that look more like mine include ones labeled N. bicolor here and here (listed as N. piazata bicolor by several other sources), Tony D's photo here, and a few other images on the genus page. So I'll be moving this one up to the Nemognatha page shortly.

… Robin McLeod, 15 January, 2006 - 8:35pm

Blister Beetle

Hello Robin,

This looks a lot like a shot I took over the summer down in Florida:

...so my vote is that it is indeed a blister beetle.

PS- Did you notice the small weevil in your left photo feeding as well?

… Tony DiTerlizzi, 1 December, 2004 - 7:54am

blister beetle

Thanks, Tony. If it's Nemognatha, I suppose it's also nemorensis - the only Ontario species in that genus. Interestingly, this page mentions "...particularly, Rudbeckia" in referring to the food plant of nemorensis (Rudbeckia hirta being Black-eyed Susan, which my beetle was feeding on).
Regarding the small weevil, the original photo shows three of them. They look similar to the ones Charles photographed.

… Robin McLeod, 1 December, 2004 - 1:26pm

I agree.

Probably either Nemognatha or Zonitis, though there are still other possibilities.

… Eric R. Eaton, 1 December, 2004 - 11:33am

Zonitis...

sounds good too. One species occurs here (Z. bilineata); couldn't find a web image but the back of my beetle certainly looks "bilineated" (two-lined). Thanks to both of you - at least my soldier beetle idea has been ruled out.

… Robin McLeod, 1 December, 2004 - 2:12pm

Blister - NOT Soldier - Beetle

...I apparently spoke too soon about my Soldier Beetle idea being "ruled out" - someone has put these images in the Guide's Soldier Beetle section.

(update) moved to blister beetle section 12 Jan 2005...

… Robin McLeod, 14 December, 2004 - 2:09am

The Web program did it.

If the text associated with an image mentions another species, guess what: it gets included there as well! The best policy I've found in my relatively short time here is to edit out all references to other species in order to avoid confusion.

… Jim McClarin, 26 June, 2005 - 12:11pm