AW Insect Book: Beetles - Coleoptera

[BluTuna]

CMR Bean Beetle Hycleus oculatus
Family: Meloidae. Subfamily: Meloinae. Tribe: Mylabrini

© BluTuna
Shingwedzi, Kruger National Park

KZN, South Africa © GlosterBirder


Description
27mm. Typical H. oculatus has black elytrae with two broad yellowish crossbands, two large anterior dorsal spots ('eyespots' - hence the species name), as well as two tiny anterior spots hidden under the humeral angles and usually only visible from the side. Some individuals may have the dorsal eyespots reduced to mere points, and sometimes all anterior spots are completely absent. Some have the anterior crossband yellowish but the posterior one partly or completely reddish, or the posterior crossband may be completely absent. Some of these variations have been named, either as full species or as infraspecific taxa. Until the group is properly revised, their taxonomic status remains indeterminate.
Recent evidence suggests that the correct name for this species might rather be Hycleus tricolor.

Taxono mic Note
This species was formerly classed as Mylabris oculata. Bologna & Pinto (2002) showed that the genus Mylabris does not occur in Africa.

Habitat
Diverse. Often seen swarming on flowers, particularly on Acacia.

Biology
Adults feed on flowers, often damaging ornamental garden plants and cotton, beans, peaches, citrus and other crops. Larvae, however, regulate the number of grasshoppers (including plague locusts) by parasitizing their egg pods.

© steamtrainfan
Pilanesberg

© Sprocky
Grietjie Private Nature Reserve (Balule Nature Reserve)

[BluTuna]

Armoured Darkling Beetle Anomalipus sp.
Family: Tenebrionidae. Subfamily: Tenebrioninae. Tribe: Pedinini

© BluTuna
Kruger National Park, Balule camp


Anomalipus soecies are large or very large beetles of dull or black colour. The lateral margin of the anterior tibia has a large process. The mentum is very large, concealing the base of the maxillary palps; the presence of a stridulatory gula is unique to this genus (and Gonopus, which it resembles). The pronotum is often as broad as or broader than the elytra – elytral sculpturation is usually species or sub-species specific.


http://the-eis.com/elibrary/sites/defau ... reille.pdf

[Toko]

Ground Beetle Termophilum burchelli burchelli
Family: Carabidae. Subfamily: Harpalinae. Tribe: Anthiini

© Flutterby
Pilanesberg

Description
Body size very large, length up to 45 mm. A flightless ground beetle with prominent, powerful, sharp mandibles, fast runner and capable of squirting an irritating fluid in defence. All black. Yellow patches on the sides of the pronotum and striped-looking grooved elytra, circumscribed with a yellow line.

[Toko]

Spider Monkey Beetle Lepithrix pseudolineata
Superfamily Scarabaeoidea. Family Scarabaeidae. Subfamily Melolonthinae. Tribe Hopliini

© Tina
West Coast National Park

Hopliini (monkey beetles) are distinguished from other Scarabaeidae by the tarsal claws which, especially on the hindlegs, are unequally sized and movable. Larvae are known as white grubs, a term also used for larvae of the subfamily Melolonthinae. They feed on plant litter and plant roots in the soil, and can be serious pests of cultivated crops and lawns.
Adults are often brightly coloured and hairy with large powerful hind legs and usually encountered in flowers.

Description
9 mm. Yellow hairs on its black face. Elytra is brown with rounded margins.

Taxonomic note
Monkey beetles are scarab beetles, a group of several genera within the tribe Hopliini. The placement of this tribe within the family Scarabaeidae is uncertain between Melolonthinae and Rutelinae.

Distribution
Western Cape.

Habitat
Succulent Karoo.

Biology
Very active flier, seen only in spring, often on mesems.
Larvae feed on organic matter in sandy soil.

[Toko]

Monkey Beetle Lepisia braunsi
Superfamily Scarabaeoidea. Family Scarabaeidae. Subfamily Melolonthinae. Tribe Hopliini

© Tina
West Coast National Park

Taxonomic note
Monkey beetles are scarab beetles, a group of several genera within the tribe Hopliini. The placement of this tribe within the family Scarabaeidae is uncertain between Melolonthinae and Rutelinae.

[Toko]

Fruit Chafer Leucocelis adspersa
Superfamily: Scarabaeoidea. Family: Scarabaeidae. Subfamily: Cetoniinae. Tribe: Cetoniini



Description
Approximately 18 mm in length. It is usually very dark green and may appear black. Very rarely, the wing covers are a lighter green, and some specimens are known to have reddish wing covers. This chafer has creamy-coloured speckles on the wing cover and thorax, a pattern that can vary a little. It is one of the few Leucocelis species with long hairs on the underside and only a narrow part in the middle.

Dark bronze, brighter on the prothorax, the outer margin of which has a somewhat narrow reddish band reaching from the apex to the base, but this band is occasionally quite obliterated; the elytra are dark green or green with a faint reddish tinge ; the pygidium is very dark red, and occasionally dark bronze; palpi and antennal club rufescent. Head very closely punctulate; prothorax moderately closely punctate, the punctures separated by an interval about equal to their own diameter in the anterior part, but more than double that width in the posterior, in the discoidal part are two rows consisting each of three white impressions, and there are two similar impressions in the outer marginal part; scutellum impunctate; elytra moderately attenuate towards the posterior part, and hardly impressed near the humeral part, the double rows of punctures in the first two intervals are more or less distinct, and so is the double one outside the discoidal costa which is well raised, the defiexed part is punctate sub-seriate, but the punctures arc very shallow, and on each elytron are three rows of white macules; under side greyish pubescent especially on the pectus and femora; pygidium closely shagreened scrobiculate, and having two or three small white macules on each side, these macules are occasionally wanting; sternal process quite transverse.
(Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa)

[Toko]

Savanna Fruit Chafer Dischista cincta
Superfamily: Scarabaeoidea. Family: Scarabaeidae. Subfamily: Cetoniinae. Tribe: Cetoniini

© Sprocky
Grietjie Private Nature Reserve (Balule Nature Reserve)

Description
A green-brown scarabid, lighter in dry habitats. Pronotum outlined with orange. Two yellow spots on the pygidium distinguish this species from the otherwise similar Dischista rufa. The pygidium in D. cincta is always white with orange/yellow markings.

Distribution
South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania.

Habitat
Savanna woodland and the drier Karoo habitats of South Africa. Often found feeding on acacia flowers such as Acacia Karoo.

[Toko]

Clerine Checkered Beetle Aphelochroa sanguinalis
Suborder: Polyphaga. Series: Cucujiformia. Superfamily: Cleroidea. Family: Cleridae. Subfamily: Clerinae

© BluTuna

© BluTuna
Kruger National Park, Balule

Cleridae are a family of beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea. They are commonly known as checkered beetles. The Cleridae family has a worldwide distribution, and a variety of habitats and feeding preferences. Cleridae have a large number of niches and feeding habits. Adults are found on flowers, foliage of woody plants and tree trunks, and are sometimes attracted to lights. Most genera are predaceous and feed on other beetles and larvae; however other genera are scavengers or feed on pollen and bectar.
Female Cleridae lay between 28–42 eggs at a time predominately under the bark of trees. Larvae are predaceous and feed vigorously before pupation and subsequently emergence as adults. The slender, cylindrical larvae, some of which are brightly coloured, commonly occur in dead wood. They prey on larvae of wood-boring beetles and grasshopper egg pods, or parasitize bees and wasps. Others feed on stored animal products or carrion.

Clerids have elongated slightly flattened and parallel-sided bodies with large heads and bristly hairs, are usually bright colored, and have variable antennae. Checkered beetles range in length between 3 and 24 mm. Most are brightly coloured, some banded brown, black and white. The antennae are clubbed at the tip for most species, but others can be serratae. The pronotum region is nearly cylindrical and characteristically narrower than the elytra (special hardened front wings), while the head is as wide or wider than the pronotum. Their elytra have tiny pits or depressions, and never expose more than two tergites (dorsal plates).
Their tarsal formula is 5–5–5, meaning that on each of the front, middle and hind legs there are 5 tarsomeres (individual subsegments of the feet/tarsi). One or more of these subsegments on each leg is typically lobed, and the 4th tarsi is normally difficult to distinguigh. Furthermore, an important feature that eliminates many other families of beetles is that Clerids' front coxae (base of the leg) expose the second segment of the legs known as the trochanter.
The second defining characteristic of the Cleridae family is that Clerids never have eversible vesicles (small usually hidden balloon-like structures thought to be scent glands) on their abdomen and pronotum. This characteristic distinguishes them from a similar family Melyridae which sometimes has these glands. This trait is very important in correctly differentiating checkered beetles from Melyridae.

The checkered beetle Aphelochroa sanguinalis (Westwood) (Coleoptera: Cleridae) is found in savanna and woodland ecosystems of southern and eastern Africa.

[Toko]

Giant African Ground Beetle Anthia (Termophilum) fornasinii
Family: Carabidae. Subfamily: Harpalinae. Tribe: Anthiini

© BluTuna
Kruger National Park, Balule camp

Description
50 mm, heavy-bodied, black. Head and pronotum lightly punctured, depressed lateral expansions of the pronotum covered with dense white/yellow pubescence. Elytra with longitudinal grooves and scattered bristles, and pale hairs around margins. Legs stout - these beetles are powerful predators that rely on speed and agility for capturing prey.
The male exhibits more elongated mandibles than the female.

Habitat
Subtrobical forest and savanna.

Biology
Ground dwelling. Nocturnal, attracted to lights. Several members of the genus Anthia are armed with Formic acid, with which they will spray attackers.

[Klipspringer]

Tribe Gymnopleurini