Checkered beetle

Posted on July 7, 2016 by nannaria


Enoclerus ichneumoneus (Fabricius, 1776)

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Weird beetle larva

Posted on April 30, 2016 by nannaria

weirdbeetle
Larva of the Net-winged beetle, Caenia dimidiata (Fabricius, 1801)

This is the larva of Caenia dimidiata, a Net-winged beetle of the family Lycidae. The top image shows the dorsum (back) of the beetle, and the bottom is the venter (underside). The adult beetle has a striking orange and black appearance. Many lycid beetles produce noxious lycidic acid or pyrazine and they warn potential predator of their toxicity through conspicuous coloration (Eisner, 2005). The strange protuberances on either side of its body segments are composed of cuticle and serve an unknown role. The beetle’s head is bizarre and possesses stubby antennae and reduced mouthparts.

  • A high-res version of the beetle image is linked here (9.2 MB).
  • Eisner, T. (2005). For love of insects. Harvard University Press.
  • Thanks to D. Hennen for collecting it, and J. Cicero for identifying the species.
  • There are no images of C. dimidiata larvae online, so feel free to use this one anyway you see fit since it’s in the public domain (CC0)
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New tarantula species

Posted on February 18, 2016 by nannaria

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A new species of therophosid tarantula: Aphonopelma mareki

This week a tarantula from the desert southwest was named after me. The species was named by my colleagues Chris Hamilton, Brent Hendrixson, and Jason Bond in the journal ZooKeys (doi: 10.3897/zookeys.560.6264).

A few years ago on October 27, my wife Charity and I (and our dog) took a backpacking trip to West Clear Creek Wildnerness in Yavapai County, Arizona. It was a beautiful place and an excellent recommendation by Charity.

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West Clear Creek Wilderness, Arizona

During the hike, we backpacked, camped, swam, and took day hikes (and night hikes). One evening, we hiked out from the camp and found a neat black tarantula with sandy blonde highlights. I knew it wasn’t the common and widespread species Aphonopelma chalcodes, so I collected it for my spider colleagues. (Tarantulas are easy to collect because they’re relatively docile—you just touch their back legs and they’ll crawl right into a peanut butter jar.) The spider turned out to be a new species, and I was truly honored to have it named after me. The article that contains the new species is 340(!) pages long, and includes taxonomic treatment of all 55 species of the genus Aphonopelma. It’s was a huge undertaking and a wonderful published work.

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The theraphosid tarantula Aphonopelma mareki in nature

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National Moth Week 2015

Posted on July 23, 2015 by nannaria

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Death’s-head Hawk moth, Acherontia atropos (Linneaus, 1758). D. Descouens CC BY-SA 3.0

Join entomologists from Virginia Tech and celebrate National Moth Week! Come out to the university farm and discover insect biodiversity and nighttime nature. We’ll be at Kentland Farm at 9PM this Thursday, July 23. We’ll set up an insect-alluring mercury-vapor lamp and UV black light.

This year’s National Moth Week is celebrating the moth family Sphingidae, which includes the hawk moths, sphinx moths, and hornworms. Pictured above is a member of this family from France. It’s a close relative to our Tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata) here in the United States. Sphingid moths are fascinating insects with a superb ability to fly. Often displaying “swing-hovering”, sphingids have the agile ability to make rapid lateral movements. This flying behavior may have evolved to evade their sit-and-wait predators hanging out in the flowers that the moths visit to sip nectar.

The Death’s-head Hawk moth, which is distributed throughout Europe and Africa, possesses a skull shape pattern on its thorax. Here’s a picture of one specimen with a particularly excellent skull. Acherontia atropos has some fascinating behaviors. The adults go on nighttime raids of bee nests for honey and they make a peculiar squeaking noise if disturbed (thanks Rhea for sharing that factoid!)

  • Directions: enter Kentland Farm’s main entrance and go west past the UAV strip. We will be south of the road in the driveway of the old house on Kentland’s campus. The exact latitude and longitude are: 37.19533, -80.58061 A link to the location is at:
    http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.19533,-80.58061&z=20&t=H
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