Many beetles feed on plant fiber and nectar, so if you have floral arrangements, they might live in and around them. In fact, cut flowers are a common entry vehicle for beetles. For example, carpet beetles eat a wide variety of items, mostly fibrous.
Red flour, cigarette, and saw-toothed grain beetles are also common home invaders that feed on stored products such as tobacco, flour, grains, fruits and nuts. They also like human and animal hair as well as dead insects and lint, so anywhere this matter collects is ripe for the pickings. Of course, beetle infestations can grow quickly and be very hard to eliminate. What Do Beetles Eat?
Are Beetles Able to Bite? As predators, they reduce populations of problem insects, especially caterpillars. Ladybird beetles are widely known to be important predators of aphids, and can be purchased commercially for this purpose. Detriments of beetles. A small percentage of beetles can be said to be harmful to products of humans. Some bark beetles kill thousands of trees in western forests each year.
Agriculture in the United States is in constant threat of serious beetle pests, the prime examples being the Cotton Boll Weevil and the various species of Rootworms. Many stored foods are ruined, these including meats, dairy products, flour, meal, cereals, stored grain, nuts, and fruits. Varieties of beetles. Weevils Curculionidae constitute the largest family of beetles, and are arguably the largest Family of insects.
There are approximately Families of beetles in the United States. Prized by Collectors. The beauty, size and variety of beetles cause them to be very popular among collectors of items from nature.
Especially valued by collectors are large, tropical species of buprestid Buprestidae and long-horned Cerambycidae beetles. Scarab Scarabaeidae beetles are sometimes remarkably colorful with attractive patterns also. The variations of shapes in beetle species are remarkable. There are large beetles found in fungi with bodies that resemble violins. Snail-eating beetles have long "necks" to invade snail shells.
Aquatic beetles have bodies and legs designed for swimming. Arnett, R. The giant beetle is compared with a minute flower beetle enclosed in a red circle. Other size relationships in this photo include the "head" of an ordinary straight pin, the "eye" of a sewing needle, and a millimeter ruler. Dynastes hercules , a spectacular hercules beetle from Costa Rica. Dynastes granti , a female southwestern hercules beetle from Arizona.
Cottonwood stag beetle Lucanus mazama. This beetle became trapped in a tar pit nearly 11 million years ago, at a time when large glaciers dominated the landscape in North America.
The elytra wing covers of this beetle are perfectly preserved. The beetle appears to be a streamlined water beetle, possibly belonging to the family Dytiscidae.
A modern-day water beetle in the family Hydrophilidae. This is probably the giant black water beetle Hydrophilus triangularis. Water beetles are descendants of terrestrial insects and have evolved a number of adaptations for living in water.
The bodies are streamlined to reduce drag as they swim. The flattened short legs are fringed with hairs and serve to propel the beetle through water. While submersed these beetles obtain oxygen from a bubble of air stored under their inner wings elytra and along the ventral surface of their thorax. Stout's hardwood borer Polycaon stouti , another member of the family Bostrichidae.
This beetle has very destructive larvae, particularly if you have wood construction in your home made of oak and maple. The larvae of this beetle can even bore into furniture! Bombardier beetles of the genus Brachinus , a member of the large ground beetle family Carabidae. They are fairly common in southern California, particularly near streams, lakes and marshy areas.
The wing covers elytra are dark blue-brown with a contrasting reddish-orange head and prothorax. Soldier blister beetles of the genus Tegrodera. The inflated blister beetle Cysteodemus armatus , a curious beetle with a small head and inflated abdomen. Because it superficially resembles a spider it is sometimes called the desert spider beetle.
This beetle feeds on ephemeral wildflowers as it scurries across sandy riverbeds and washes. The pitted back has several color variations. A metallic green fig beetle Cotinus texana , so named because it is often found feeding on fig fruits during the warm summer months in southern California.
It is also fond of other ripe, juicy fruits, such as peaches and plums. These attractive beetles spend their juvenile larval stage in the ground, often beneath manure piles, compost and haystacks. A metallic green fig beetle Cotinus texana gorging itself inside a fleshy, ripe syconium of the Calimyrna fig Ficus carica. Although masses of minute, aggressive Argentine ants Iridomyrmex humilis are also foraging in the syconium, the beetle is protected by a tough, impervious exoskeleton.
Phoracantha recurva , a long-horned wood-boring beetle introduced into southern California from Australia. According to A. Evans and J. Another closely related species P. The larvae of both species tunnel between the bark and wood, but construct their pupal chambers in the heartwood. Adult beetles are attracted to fallen branches and injured or water-stressed trees. A friendly sawyer beetle on a coffee table in Wyoming.
An adult ten-lined june beetle Polyphylla decemlineata. Eupatorius gracilicornis , a large scarab beetle from Malaysia. Male black rain beetle Pleocoma puncticollis , a large scarab beetle that appears with the first soaking rain in San Diego County.
The flattened, bilobed extension of the head clypeus is used for scooping soil as he pushes through the ground. The underside of the body is covered with dense black hair. A female rain beetle Pleocoma sp. She is larger than the male and spends most of her life below ground in her burrow. Like the male, she has a very hairy underside and is equipped with powerful legs and a sturdy clypeus on the front of her head. Dung beetles at the elephant exhibit at the San Diego Zoo.
Has your job got you down? Think about the dung beetle who spends its days rolling around a ball of dung: Please watch the following video to cheer yourself up: Dung Beetle Video. A carrion beetle of the family Silphidae, also known as the black burying beetle Nicrophorus nigrita.
According to James N. Hogue Introduction to California Beetles , , Nicrophorus demonstrates the most advanced behavior of parental care known in beetles.
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