That's Not an Ant?!

It is always best to avoid making assumptions about insects in the field. I was reminded of that on three seperate occasions this month, all of them involving mimicry of ants by small longhorned beetles in the family Cerambycidae. Early spring is apparently the season for these wood-boring insects, at least here in Kansas. Their resemblance to ants is uncanny, and highly convincing.

Cyrtophorus verrucosus

While exploring our yards and looking for insects on April 2, I noticed what I thought was a carpenter ant climbing on the exterior of our detached garage. I was about to dismiss it, but decided to document it anyway, as it would be new for the year. Imagine my surprise and delight to discover it was instead an adult Cyrtophorus verrucosus. This species has no common name, which is unfortunate given its uniqueness.

The beetle averages only 9 millimeters in body length. Larvae bore in a variety of host trees, including maple, hickory, oak, elm, birch, chestnut, dogwood, Eastern Redbud, American Beech, and even pine. The adult beetles are active from March to July, but are most abundant in early spring. Cyrtophorus verrucosus ranges over most of the eastern U.S., and Canada as far west as Alberta. This was a new species for our property.

I was invited to present the keynote address for a joint meeting of the Kansas Academy of Science, and Central States Entomological Society, in Wichita, Kansas on April 5, and Heidi and I stayed over to go exploring on Sunday, April 6. I reached out to a Facebook and iNaturalist friend, Ryan Philbrick, and we met at the Kansas Wildlife Exhibit in Central Riverside Park. From there we went to Keeper of the Plains, and walked the nice concrete trail along the Arkansas River. At one point, Ryan turned over a small, broken tree limb on the ground. He noticed millipedes and a small "ant" crawling over the bark.

Euderces pini

I trained my camera on the ant and discovered it was another species of longhorned beetle, Euderces pini. At only 7-8 millimeters, and slender, it is even more ant-like than other species. The larval host trees include Flowering Dogwood, Pecan, Winged Elm, and American Beech, but there are several other hardwoods on the menu.

The adult beetles are frequently found on flowers, feeding on pollen and nectar. Even dandelions will suffice until native trees start blooming. Euderces pini occurs in the southern half of the eastern United States, and appears as an adult from March to June.

Currant-tip Borer

Back home, yesterday, April 13, I happened to notice a small ant-like insect on the central air-conditioning unit in the back yard. It was even smaller than the other beetles, but at least it had a common name: the Currant-tip Borer, Psenocerus supernotatus.

Despite its name, this 4-millimeter beetle has been reared from plants other than currant: Green Hawthorn, Tulip Tree (aka Tulip Poplar, Yellow Poplar), and Black Willow. This beetle is widespread in North America, east of the Rocky Mountains, and the adults are found from April to June.

None of these three beetles are considered pests, maybe because they do not affect crops or orchard trees. Their earthtone colors make them rather cryptic, but they are quite active, running rapidly, and flying well.

An actual ant

It is interesting to note the convergence in body shape and coloration between the different genera. They each have white streaks or bars designed to suggest body segmenation where there is none. Ants show marked constrictions between the head, thorax, and abdomen. In these beetles, the thorax may be mistaken for the enlarged head of an ant, and the elytra (wing covers), "divided" into thorax and abdomen by those white markings. The true head of the beetle is relatively small, and in the case of the Currant-tip Borer, directed downward and nearly hidden by the thorax.

There are even more ant-mimicking longhorned beetle species. Give that "ant" a second glance, especially if you see it in isolation, with no other ants nearby. It may turn out to be a beetle instead.

Sources: Lingafelter, Steven W. 2007. Illustrated Key to the Longhorned Woodboring Beetles of the Eastern United States North Potomac, Maryland: Coleopterists Society, Special Publication No. 3. 206 pp.
Yanega, Douglas. 1996. Field Guide to Northeastern Longhorned Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). Champaign, Illinois: Illinois Natural History Survey, Manual 6. 174 pp.

Wishful Blinking

Wishful Blinking

Alas, not a firefly,
But the lights of a car passing by.

Eric R. Eaton

Fungus Party-y-y!

Sometimes, with luck, you stumble upon a wonderful circumstance of insect abundance. My partner, Heidi, did so this past Saturday afternoon, September 17, along a trail through Wyandotte County Lake Park, Kansas, USA. She happened to notice a thick mass of mushrooms at the base of a tree. It was literally crawling with insects.

Everybody on the dance floor!

The fungus in question may be a species of “oyster mushroom” in the genus Pleurotus, according to Ben Sikes at the University of Kansas, and with the Kansas Biological Survey. He was kind enough to offer an opinion on my photo of it on iNaturalist. At least some species are fit for human consumption, too, but please do not forage without expert guidance, at least initially. Your experiment in wild culinary arts could end abruptly and permanently if you do not know exactly which mycological fruiting bodies to avoid.

"Get down to it....get down to it...."

Insects, on the other hand, do not seem to care, especially the many varieties of beetles that are collectively known as fungus beetles. There are pleasing fungus beetles (family Erotylidae). There are handsome fungus beetles (Endomychidae), hairy fungus beetles (Mycetophagidae), tooth-necked fungus beetles (Derodontidae), silken fungus beetles (Cryptophagidae), polypore fungus beetles (Tetratomidae), cryptic fungus beetles (Archeocrypticidae), minute tree-fungus beetles (Ciidae), and several genera of darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae) that are found almost exclusively on or in fungi, including woody shelf fungi. I may be forgetting some….

Triplax thoracica, but there may have been another species with a dusky or black belly instead of an orange underside.

The most abundant insect on this particular mushroom cluster is probably a pleasing fungus beetle, Triplax thoracica. That genus, certainly, but that species apparently loves oyster mushrooms. It occurs across the eastern half of the U.S. and adjacent Canada. At only 3-5.6 millimeters in length, they are difficult to spot as individuals, but there were dozens flying in, flying out, and running about.

Uh, oh [abrupt, scratched record sound].

In a prehistoric analogy, Triplax are the herd of plant feeders. Sure enough, there were vicious carnivores prowling through the gills and over the caps of the mushrooms.

Sharp dresser, anyway.

A sleek, serpentine, black rove beetle with metallic blue-green elytra (wing covers) popped into view periodically. Meet Philonthus caeruleipennis, 12-15 millimeters long. Were it a vertebrate, it would no doubt be a weasel, mink, ferret, or other mustelid. It is transcontinental in Canada, but occurs only in the northeast quarter of the U.S. It also occurs in Europe.

Pull the fire alarm! Call 9-1-1!

The equivalent of Tyranosaurus rex in this micro-scenario would be the Brown Rove Beetle, Platydracus maculosus. Measuring 22-35 millimeters, it dwarfs its prey, which in this case was the Triplax fungus beetles.

Serial killer making mincemeat of partygoers.

By now, oblivious to the monsters among them, the Triplax party was becoming something of an orgy, with love trains of males following females. It was quite amusing.

Gettin' busy.

Some of the fungus beetles also had passengers in the form of phoretic mites. The mites, which are probably “mesostigs” in the order Mesostigmata, cause no harm to the beetles. Instead of being parasitic, the mites are hitchhikers, using the beetles as transport to a location where they can feed on insect eggs or other tiny prey.

Mites being a little voyeuristic....

Along with the beetles were pomace flies, family Drosophilidae. These are the “fruit flies” you see in your kitchen around overripe fruit, fermented beverages, and other foods. Drosophilids sare surprisingly diverse, and a good variety can be found around rotting fungi “in the wild.”

Pomace fly disappointed that the mushroom is not spoiling already....

The latecomer to the party was a worker Tennessee Spine-waisted Ant, Aphaenogaster tennesseensis. She was simply looking for dead or injured insects she could take back to her colony to feed her larval sisters.

"Just passing through!

At last, it was time for me to say farewell. Heidi had already progressed down the trail by about fifty yards.

"I'm blowin' this fruit stand!"

Now is a perfect time to go out looking for mushrooms and their associated insects. We left these mushrooms alone, but sometimes it is necessary to tear apart the fungus to find insects. It is best to do so over a white enamel pan, or some other kind of tray so that it catches the insects falling out. Be quick to grab the rove beetles before they take flight. If you do know your mushrooms, then bonus! You can take uninfested specimens to the kitchen instead of the lab. Enjoy your autumn no matter what you do.

Nom-nom-nom-nom....

Sources: Rhine, Lyndzee. 2020. A Pocket Guide to Common Kansas Mushrooms. Wichita: Great Plains Nature Center. 69 pp.
Evans, Arthur V. 2014. Beetles of Eastern North America. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 560 pp.

What is, and is NOT, a Japanese Beetle

It is that time of year again in North America when everything is a Japanese Beetle. No matter whether you are a trusted and reliable expert, other people will insist that Green June Beetles, Fig Beetles, Dogbane Leaf Beetles, and various other beetles, are in fact Japanese Beetles. Why is this the case? There is much misinformation online and in the media. Family, friends, coworkers, and others present themselves as experts and make incorrect identifications. Mobile phone "apps" can also be misleading, given the relative infancy of image recognition software and deep learning, which frequently compounds errors instead of correcting them. Here is everything you need to know about how to recognize the Japanese Beetle, Popillia japonica, as well as lookalike species.

L-R: Japanese Beetle, Green June Beetle, Emerald Flower Scarab

The Japanese Beetle, as its name implies, occurs naturally in Japan and northern China. An accidental introduction of this species to New Jersey in 1916 is apparently what launched the beetle's domination of yards and gardens over most of the eastern United States and southeast Canada. It delivers a double whammy to urban and suburban areas by feeding on the roots of turf grasses in its subterranean larval (grub) stage, and on the foliage of more than three hundred (300) species of plants as an adult insect. The beetles are "skeletonizers," leaving a net-like pattern of leaf veins in the wake of their chewing. Grape and rose are among their favorites.

Typical "skeletonizing" damage by Japanese Beetle

Japanese beetles are classified as scarab beetles, in the family Scarabaeidae, subfamily Rutelinae, collectively known as the shining leaf chafers. The adults become suddenly abundant about mid-summer. They fly well, quickly dispersing themselves over the landscape. Their sheer numbers, the telltale pattern of damage they do to foliage, their size, and their behavior help to make them easy to identify with a little practice.

Japanese Beetles congregating and mating

These are smaller insects than you might expect, ranging from 8.9-11.8 millimeters in body length. That is less than half an inch. They vary in color by individual and age, but most are shining metallic green and red. The flanks of the abdomen are adorned with tufts of white hairs, a feature no other lookalike beetle has. The elytra (wing covers) are striated (have grooves), which also helps set them apart from similar beetles. The hind legs are long and stout, with sharp spurs coming from the tip of the tibial segment (think "shin"). When disturbed, Japanese beetles will flare their hind legs out and up, presenting their spiked weaponry. They can give you a good prick should you insist on seizing one.

Japanese Beetle in defensive pose

The antennae of adult Japanese Beetles are short, with a series of leaf-like plates at the tip, typical of all scarab beetles and their allies. The term for this style of antenna is "lamellate" for "plate-like." The plates are covered in receptors that are tuned to species-specific pheromones for locating others of their kind. Pheromone traps, sold commercially, work well if your goal is to draw even more Japanese Beetles to your yard or garden. Hand-picking the insects and drowning them in pails of water, with a dash of dish soap to break the surface tension, may be the best way to control them. Time consuming for certain, but highly specific to the target pest, and otherwise environmentally friendly.

Green June Beetle, Cotinis nitida

The number one victim of mistaken identity in the Japanese Beetle game is far and away the innocuous Green June Beetle, Cotinis nitida, another scarab beetle that is native to the United States. This insect is much larger, at 15-27 millimeters in size. It is mostly matte green with some degree of iridescence in the right light, especially on the insect's underside. It may or may not be marked with ochre trim, and lines on the wing covers. You may hear these beetles before you see them, as they fly loudly. Green June Beetles, and their relative, the Fig Beetle (Cotinis mutabilis), are classified as "flower chafers" in the subfamily Cetoniinae. They have a special hinge on each wing cover that allows the elytra to remain closed while the membranous hind wings are deployed for flight. Consequently, flower chafers bear a great resemblance to large bees while cruising around looking for food or mates. Green June Beetle feeds on flower nectar and pollen, but occasionally damages ripe fruit; and they also feed on fermenting sap from wounds on trees. This makes them a mild pest under circumstances of orchards and nurseries. As grubs, Green June Beetles feed on decomposing organic matter. You will often see females diving headlong into compost and manure heaps to lay their eggs. In nature they look for rich humus.

Emerald Flower Scarab

Another flower chafer sometimes mistaken for a Japanese Beetle is the Emerald Flower Scarab, Euphoria fulgida. This beautiful beetle measures 13.4-19.8 millimeters. It is often highly active and quicker to fly than the other beetles mentioned so far. It varies considerably in color according to both the individual and the geographic locality it lives in. Specimens from the foothills of the Front Range in Colorado, for example, are deep purple and brilliant turquoise.

Dogbane Leaf Beetle

Recently, I had a....disagreement with someone in social media about the identity of yet another beetle, the Dogbane Leaf Beetle, Chrysochus auratus. At 8-13 millimeters, it approximates the size of a Japanese Beetle. It is superficially colored the same, too, being brilliant metallic green, red, blue, bronze, or copper, depending on the angle of light hitting the creature. That is where the similarity ends. The Dogbane Leaf Beetle belongs to a completely different family, the Chrysomelidae. One look at the long, uniformly segmented antennae, tells you it is not a scarab. Its legs are not armed with spines or teeth, and it has cute, wide little feet for gripping plants. Most decisive, however, is the food preference for this species. Dogbane Leaf Beetle feeds only on....surprise....dogbane. You may occasionally encounter an individual that has alighted on some other plant in the course of trying to find a mate or another dogbane plant, but there will never be large numbers of them on anything but dogbane.

Female Tiphia wasp searching for buried scarab grubs

All manner of control strategies have been applied to the Japanese Beetle, yet here it is, still with us, in arguably greater numbers than ever, and steadily expanding its empire. We have imported the Spring Tiphia wasp, Tiphia vernalis, from China in 1925, a natural enemy. The female wasp digs up a beetle grub, stings it into temporary paralysis, lays an egg on it, and abandons it. The larval wasp that hatches feeds on the grub externally, eventually killing it. We also employ Bacillus popilliae, known better as "milky spore disease" to combat the grubs. The bacterium turns the beetle larvae a milky white color in the process of killing them, but it also affects native scarab grubs.

A large robber fly, Laphria lata, has skewered a Japanese Beetle on its proboscis

Be careful in how you control Japanese Beetles, lest you adversely impact garden allies. Assassin bugs, particularly the Wheel Bug, and robber flies, are among the chief predators of Japanese Beetles, but they need as natural a landscape as possible to proliferate and be effective controls. Invasive species are an artifact of global consumerism, and coveting thy (foreign) neighbor's flora. Resist the temptation and help prevent the next pest from gaining a foothold.

Nope, not a Japanese Beetle. Not even a beetle, but the nymph of a Green Stink Bug.

Sources: Evans, Arthur V. 2014. Beetles of Eastern North America. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 560 pp.
Ratcliffe, Brett C. 1991. The Scarab Beetles of Nebraska. Lincoln: University of Nebraska. Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum, vol. 12. 333 pp.
Berenbaum, May R. 1995. Bugs in the System: Insects and Their Impact on Human Affairs. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. 377 pp.
Fahmy, Omar. 2007. "Species Tiphia vernalis - Spring Tiphia," Bugguide.net
Eaton, Eric R. and Kenn Kaufman. 2007. Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 392 pp.

It Pays to do the Dishes: A Rarely-Seen Beetle is Found

The other day, July 7, I was washing the dishes and noticed a small insect clinging to the outside window screen. Perhaps it had taken shelter during the early morning storms that day….When I was finished with the plates and silverware, I went out to see what the creature was. It was a small jewel beetle, family Buprestidae. I took a picture and decided it was a species of Agrilus that I had not seen before in our Leavenworth, Kansas, USA yard. Boy, was I wrong.

When I first saw it, the beetle had all its appendages tucked in pretty close to its body, but when I disturbed it, it unfurled comb-like (pectinate) antennae, something you do not expect to see in a buprestid. I knew there was at least one species in which the male has this brand of antennae, so I looked it up.

Turns out it is the rarely-seen Xenorhipis brandeli. This specimen is on the large end of the 3-7 millimeter size scale for the species. Given that it is not economically important (damaging), a surprising amount of information is known about it. Unfortunately, most of the relevant papers are locked behind pay walls, and therefore not readily accessible to me.

Xenorhipis brendeli is one of only three species in the genus found in North America north of Mexico, and the only one ranging into the northeast U.S. All exhibit sexual dimorphism in the antennae, females lacking the branches that the males do.

Ringo Compean, commenting on one of my Facebook posts, said “That’s an eyelash bug.” How perfectly descriptive! It is still a subdued beetle compared to many members of the Buprestidae. It is basically black or dark brown with blue, green, and/or bronzy highlights, and yellowish accents on the “shoulders.”

Besides the extravagant antennae, males have a pair of large pits on the underside, on what amounts to their “chest.” These cavities are lined with many setae (hairs) that probably have some sort of chemosensory function. The antennae are definitely tuned to the species-specific pheromone released by virgin females. The insects are diurnal, but there is a narrow window when females emit their attractive scent. Males, at least, are very short-lived, so there is great urgency in finding a mate.

The preferred host trees for Xenorhipis brendeli are apparently hickories (Carya spp.), which includes pecans. There are plenty of hickories in Leavenworth, plus pecans in the bottomlands on Fort Leavenworth. Other known hosts include River Birch and Eastern White Oak.

The female beetle lays her eggs in crevices of bark on small limbs, about 5/8ths inches in diameter. This is of interest because I had piled small, dead and broken tree branches from our yard into a backyard brush pile for birds over the winter months. These were mostly from Pin Oak and maple, though.

The larvae that hatch from the eggs bore under the bark….and that is the extent of the preview I am allowed for the 1966 paper by S. G. Wellso.

The fate of this specimen is spoken for. It will be in the collection of a friend and colleague in Arizona, where it will have relative immortality beyond this blog post, eventually available for loan to scientists elsewhere in the world. Meanwhile, I might have to inspect that brush pile again.

Sources:Paiero Steven M., Morgan D. Jackson, et al. 2012. Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) of Northeastern North America. Ontario: Canadian Food Inspection Agency. 411 pp.
Evans, Arthur V. 2014. Beetles of Eastern North America. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 560 pp.
MacRae, Ted C. 2012. “Extreme sexual dimorphism in Buprestidae: Xenorhipis hidalgoensis,” Beetles in the Bush.
Wellso, S.G. 1966. Sexual Attraction and Biology of Xenorhipis brendeli (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). J. Kansas Ent. Soc. 39: 242-245.
MacRae, Ted. 2008. “A new species of Xenorhipus from Baja California,” Beetles in the Bush.

Borids Are Not Bor-ing

Well, that will teach me to never go anywhere without a vial or other appropriate vessel for containing a live insect. It is impossible to know when you will be presented with an unusual or rare species, so best to be prepared. A case in point occurred on Saturday, April 20, while I was manning the booth for the Mile High Bug Club at the Earth Day expo in Garden of the Gods Park here in Colorado Springs.

Lecontia discicollis, 12-23 millimeters

We had erected a canopy over our table, and at one point I noticed the shadow of a beetle atop the white tarpaulin. I did not think much of it initially, but curiosity got the better of me and I went to inspect it. I am not a tall person, so all I could manage, even on my tip-toes, was a vague, rear perspective of the insect. It was enough to convince me this was something interesting, so I grabbed the beetle. It was shiny black, and slippery thanks to its convex, bullet-like shape.

Mile High Bug Club booth

A closer examination left me stumped. It reminded me of a bark-gnawing beetle in the family Trogossitidae, but those are highly agile and usually at least slightly iridescent or metallic. This beetle was jet black and decidedly slow-moving. Meanwhile, the antennae were bead-like and reminiscent of a darkling beetle (family Tenebrionidae). Few tenebrionids are so narrow-bodied, though, and those exposed jaws suggested it was something else.

Bark-gnawing beetle, Temnoscheila sp., Colorado

I had not packed any kind of container with me, even though I knew our booth would be in the visitor center parking lot. It has been a long winter and cool, slow, spring, so I wasn't expecting to see any insects.

I racked my brain for potential solutions. Ah, a little ziplock baggie I have my business cards in! Oops, so old it has a gaping hole in it. Now what? I pawed through the compartment in my backpack and managed to find a case for eyeglasses, which thankfully shuts tight enough to hold an invertebrate. In goes the beetle.

EBCD: Emergency Beetle Containment Device

Back home, I take a closer look and start leafing through my beetle books. Still scratching my head I look at all things related, even remotely, to darkling beetles. Lo and behold, I turned to an illustration that looked pretty much identical to my specimen. Above the drawing I read "Boridae," and "Family common name: The conifer bark beetles." Never heard of them. That is how diverse beetles are. Entire families can escape your attention.

Anyone hearing "bark beetle" assumes the creature in question is some type of forest pest, but many kinds of beetles associated with the trunks of trees have been assigned some derivative of "bark beetle," and almost none of them are the least bit destructive. That appears to be the case here, too, but we have a collective void of knowledge about borids.

The base of the antenna is concealed by a ridge, a helpful identification character

Consulting several references, I could find little information. The family is obscure enough that several books did not even include them, or were of sufficient vintage that the family did not yet exist. Previously, borids had been part of the Salpingidae (narrow-waisted bark beetles). Most other information I could excavate amounted to "found under bark on conifers." It seems these beetles also like their trees baked. Ok, singed. Fine, they are basically drawn to charred timber, three to five years after a fire.

Once I had the specimen in the right family, identifying the genus and species was easy. There are only two genera, with one species each, found north of Mexico. The one in my hand was Lecontia discicollis.

I turned to Facebook, in particular the group "Friends of Coleoptera at the Natural History Museum [London]," for more help. The resulting discussion included this shared passage from Pollock (2010) in the Handbook of Zoology, Coleoptera vol. II (Leschen, Beutel & Lawrence, eds.):

"Relatively little is known, or at least published, on the habits and habitats of members of Boridae....Larvae of Lecontia discicollis are also associated with dead conifers, and seemingly are restricted to moist decayed areas in the root system of standing trees killed by fire or bark beetles (Young et al. 1996)."

Another colleague added "Lecontia discicollis is not rare if you know how to find them. Fairly common in the Black Hills [South Dakota] in and around fire killed 8-15 year old Ponderosa pine, 3-5 years after death. Larvae in soft and moist white-rotted wood near and below ground-level."

The consensus seems to be that these may be common beetles, but because they occupy such a narrow, extreme niche, you are not likely to see them very often. I will consider myself lucky, then.

Sources: Elliott, Lynette, et al. 2005. "Family Boridae - Conifer Bark Beetles," Bugguide.net
Evans, Arthur V. 2014. Beetles of Eastern North America. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 560 pp.
Pollock, Darren A. 2002. "Boridae" in Arnett, Ross H., Michael C. Thomas, Paul E. Skelley, and J. Howard Frank. American Beetles volume 2. Boca Raton: CRC Press. pp. 534-536.

A Couple of Weirdos

My last post here focused on the joys of National Moth Week, but what I neglected to mention was the added benefit of other insects being attracted to blacklights. Sometimes you get strange and significant surprises at your ultraviolet beacon. This is the story of two of those.

Clown beetle, Ulkeus intricatus, from Chico Basin Ranch

During our first moth week event at Chico Basin Ranch on July 21, we were all taking images of the moths that were drawn to our lights. There were plenty of other insects, too, like true bugs, flies, even a few wasps, plus lacewings, antlions, and beetles. I tried to document most everything, but it was not until I began editing my pictures that I noticed something spectacularly wierd. In one corner of an image of a moth was a beetle I recognized instantly as a "clown beetle" in the family Histeridae, but it had strange flanges on its legs and was a lot more bristly and "groovy" than the usual hister beetle.

It was reddish in color, too, while nearly all other clown beetles are jet black. I was aware that some clown beetles are found only in association with ants, and so I began looking at various species in the subfamily Hetaeriinae. Sure enough, up popped Ulkeus intricatus as the most likely suspect.

Legionary ants, Neivamyrmex sp., hosts of the clown beetle

So, now I begin researching this species, or at least the genus, to find out what its life history is like. It turns out that it is found only in the company of legionary ants in the genus Neivamyrmex, which makes things stranger still. Legionary ants are in a group of ants that includes army ants. They are nomadic, and mostly nocturnal, raiding the nests of other ants to prey on the larvae and pupae. This explains why the beetle was flying just after sunset: It was looking for a party of legionary ants and got distracted by our UV lights.

Exactly what the beetle does with, or to, the ants is largely unknown. My references say that the beetles are "guests" of the ants, which could mean anything from mutualism to kleptoparasitism (mutually beneficial relationship versus stealing the ant's food), or something else entirely. Exactly how the beetle would complete its life cycle if its host has no nest raises questions, too, though Neivamyrmex colonies are known to be sedentary over the winter.

Male legionary ants like this one fly to lights at night, too

There are six recognized species in the genus Ulkeus in the U.S., collectively ranging from North Carolina and Tennessee to Florida and west to Texas and Arizona. Five of those species are yet to be named and described, so I may be jumping the gun to assign a species to this one, especially since I never saw the thing let alone collected it. For all I know it is a seventh species.

Braconid wasp, Chrysopophthorus americanus

My wife and I put out a blacklight near Lyons, Colorado on July 22, despite cool and damp conditions, and among the many insects that flew in was a small, ghostly-looking wasp. I recognized that it was probably a member of the family Braconidae, wasps parasitic on other insects, but was baffled after that. Thankfully, there is Bugguide.net, and I started browsing the images to see if anyone else had recorded this wasp and, if so, was it identified.

Lo and behold, there it was, identified as Chrysopophthorus americanus. That almost never happens, being able to get a species identification that way. What's more, I learned that this wasp is a parasite of adult green lacewings (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae). Talk about a specialized niche. Since lacewings are often attracted to lights, it stands to reason that their parasites would be, too. Apparently the female wasp inserts her egg into the abdomen of the lacewing. The larva that hatches then feeds as an internal parasite inside the lacewing, eventually exiting to pupate.

Those beautiful emerald eyes!

What a wacky couple of "bugs." That is what I love about entomology, and natural history in general: You never know where one observation is going to take you, how one species intertwines with others....It is supposed to be a mild night here on October 21 and I am half-tempted to put the sheet and the blacklight out.

Sources: Caterino, Michael S. and Alexey K. Tishechkin. 2009. "A New North American Genus of Hetaeraiinae (Coleoptera: Histeridae), with Descriptions of Six New Species from the U.S.A. and Mexico," Zootaxa, 2311: 1-18.
Maxwell, John R., et al. 2008. "Species Chrysopophthorus americanus," Bugguide.