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Coleoptera

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Desert ironclad beetle

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Asbolus verrucosus

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Meet the desert ironclad beetle in the Great Vivarium at the Insectarium.

Desert ironclad beetles are found from the southwestern United States to northern Mexico. Their body has a texture similar to hammered iron and shows a bluish sheen.

Their fused, rigid wings and the rest of their exoskeleton form an effective barrier against water loss, allowing them to survive in desert conditions.

These beetles’ blue colour comes from a pigmented wax they secrete on their body’s surface. In fact, their exoskeleton is entirely black. This wax provides effective protection from the sun’s rays.

The beetle family is a diverse and dominant group in arid ecosystems. For example, in the northern Mojave Desert (California), the biomass of the desert ironclad beetle is said to exceed the combined biomass of mammals, birds, and reptiles in the same area!

Playing Dead

When frightened, these beetles will quickly roll onto their back to look like a dried-out insect. They can hold this position for several minutes, encouraging a predator to move on in search of a tastier target.

Even the beetle’s larvae can play dead. They release hemolymph (the insect equivalent of blood), which acts as a glue, covering them in soil particles. This natural camouflage makes them nearly invisible to predators.

Pinacate beetles

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Eleodes spp.

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Discover the pinacate beetle in the Great Vivarium at the Insectarium.

Pinacate beetles, from the Eleodes genus, live in the semi-desert regions of western North America. They have a thick, waxy exoskeleton that allows them to withstand temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius without losing too much moisture.

Their long legs help keep their bodies elevated above the sun-heated ground.

These legs are also useful for running and digging. Pinacate beetles can burrow into the soil to take refuge where the temperature is less intense.

Beetles from the Eleodes genus are known for their defensive behaviour. When threatened, they lower their heads and raise their abdomens in the air. In this position, they can release a foul-smelling liquid as a defense mechanism.

Clever hydration

At dawn, tiny droplets of water form on the waterproof cuticle of these beetles. The droplets gradually build up until they flow—by gravity—from the beetle’s abdomen down to its mouth.

These beetles tilt forward to collect the morning dew that has settled on their bodies.

Umtali flower beetle

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Find the Umtali flower beetle in the Great Vivarium. It’s distinguished by its beautiful metallic colors of blue-purple, green and pearl, or by its colorful borders.

Belonging to the Coleoptera order, the Umtali flower beetle is found in the rainforests of Central Africa from Uganda to Zimbabwe. It’s poorly documented to this point, and observation of its behavior at the Insectarium will advance research on the subject. If you’re lucky enough to have a flower beetle land on your hand, it’ll feel very much like a ladybug’s feet.

Frog-legged beetle

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Sagra femorata

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Meet the frog-legged beetle
in the Insectarium’s Tête-à-tête room.

This beetle from Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Laos) has large hind legs. It can display a range of bright, metallic colours.

Male beetles use their oversized legs as weapons when competing with other males. They use them both to guard females during mating and to defend their feeding territory.

Stems as a nursery for larvae

Frog-legged beetle larvae form large galls on the stems of a wide variety of host plants. Inside these galls, they develop into pupae.

Once they reach adulthood, the beetles chew their way out of the stem to emerge from their shelter.

Shiny spider beetle

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Mezium affine

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These beetles, like the other members of the Anobiidae family, can easily be mistaken for spiders – hence the name. But they definitely have six legs, not eight. The shiny elytra are orange-brown, and the head, thorax and legs are covered in dense, short hair. They have droplet-shaped bodies 2.5 to 3.5 mm long, and long antennae.

The somewhat crescent-shaped larvae are yellowish and hairy. They measure up to 4.5 mm long.

Drugstore beetle

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Stegobium paniceum

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These tiny brown oval beetles are 2.2 to 3.5 mm long. They have longitudinal rows of fine hairs on the elytra (wing covers).

They are easily confused with cigarette beetles (Lasioderma serricorne), but their antennae help to tell them apart: the drugstore beetle’s antennae end in a three-segmented club, while those of the cigarette beetle are serrated.

The whitish, crescent-shaped larvae are covered with long hairs and have brown heads. They are up to 4 mm long.

Grapevine beetle

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Pelidnota punctata

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These large, oval beetles are 1.7 to 3 cm long. Their colour varies from yellowish orange to reddish brown. Their short antennae end in clubs made of plates called lamellae, which unfurl into a fan.

Their elytra (wing covers) have three black dots on the side and a fine black line on the dorsal portion. Southern specimens have light brown legs, while northern ones have darker legs.

The fleshy grubs are whitish and C-shaped, and may be up to 5 cm long.

Rose chafer

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Macrodactylus subspinosus

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These elongated beetles are 8 to 13 mm long. They are tan or greenish, with long orange-brown legs. The wings do not completely cover the abdomen.

The whitish grubs have brown heads. In the soil they adopt a crescent-shaped position. In the final larval stage, they have three pair of long legs and are up to 13 mm long.

White-spotted sawyer

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Monochamus scutellatus

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These beetles are recognizable by their black colour and the small white spot formed by the scutellum (the triangle at the base of the elytra). They have strong, long, reddish legs. The females are larger than the males, and their elytra (wing covers) often have small white spots. Their antennae are barely longer than their bodies, whereas the males’ antennae are twice as long as their bodies. Without their antennae, the insects vary in length from 13 to 27 mm.

The legless larvae are whitish and slightly flattened, with brown heads. They can grow to more than 4 cm long.

Red milkweed beetle

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Tetraopes tetrophthalmus

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These reddish-orange beetles with their black spots are easily recognizable on their host plants, milkweed. Their legs and long antennae, typical of the long-horned beetle family, are black. The species owes its Latin name to its four eyes (tetra = four), which are actually two eyes split in two by the antennae. The adults are from 8 to 15 mm long.

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