It’s a short clip, and you’ll have to check out the end to see this little beetle take flight. I fished this one out of the pool and it’s the 2nd one I’ve seen this week, albeit a new one for me to observe. I believe this is Hylastes macer, but hoping a friend will take a look for me to confirm. I have tentatively based my ID on size (approx 5mm) and locale being under our Shore Pine trees, but I wasn’t confident using Wood’s key with only my photo and video in lieu of an actual specimen under the microscope. At minimum, Hylastes should be correct for Genus. These beetles are in the family Curculionidae and subfamily Scolytinae, one of the Bark and Ambrosia beetle species.
As to their life history, they construct galleries in phloem tissues of roots and stumps of Pinus or Pine trees and occasionally Picea or Spruce trees. According to Atkinson (2024), there are six species of Hylastes known in Washington State. Some of the species in this genus range from BC to CA. For more on distribution, take a look at Wood, 1982.
While identifying a bug is part of the process, the most fun for me is observing their behaviors. I knew when I saw the march of those little front feet, that the launch was about to take place.
Evans, A. 2021. Beetles of Western North America. Princeton University Press.
Wood, S.L. 1982. The bark and ambrosia beetles of North and Central America (Coleoptera: Scolytidae), a taxonomic monograph. Great Basin Nat. Mem. 6: 1-1356.
I found this very tiny (1mm) beetle on the rim of the pool outside yesterday (Dec. 8, 2023). In my investigational efforts to identify my specimen, I have concluded it should be one of the Minute Brown Scavenger Beetles in the family Latridiidae (pronounced la-trid-eye-i-dee). As to species, I think it is Cartodere bifasciata – based on the color pattern of elytra – black markings between 2nd and 5th stria in anteriour third and behind middle; lateral black spot in about middle. (Bugguide, 2014).
This particular species is an Australian native and likely introduced to North America via international shipping. Records show this species in Nova Scotia about 1989 (Majka et al 2009). Looking on iNaturalist for observational reports of this species, I see a few (about 15 or so) in the box I drew. You can see in the attached screenshot the general area where they are turning up in the Western US. Again, likely introduced via international shipping cargo.
Reported observations of Cartodere bifasciata in the PNW Region
Adults of beetles in this family are generally known to feed on the reproductive structures of fungi, plant and animal materials, and slime molds (Evans, 2021). They are found in association with wet or damp habitats in open or forested areas, especially in leaf litter, decomposing wood, on trees, herbaceous vegetation, and in bird, mammalian, or hymenopteran nests (Majka, 2009).
Evans, A. V. 2021. Beetles of Western North America. Princeton University Press, N.J.
Majka CG, Langor D, Rücker WH. 2009. Latridiidae (Coleoptera) of Atlantic Canada: new records, keys to identification, new synonyms, distribution, and zoogeography. The Canadian Entomologist. 141(4):317-370. doi:10.4039/n09-050.
Boy was I disappointed today when I found this beetle on the path near my home and it was HEADLESS!
This is one of my favorite San Juan Island beetles. It is the ground beetle Zacotus matthewsii, also known by the common name Matthew’s Angry Gnashing Beetle. “Zacotus” translates from Greek into “Very Angry” in English. I’m certain I’ve never seen one angry, but this one may indeed have been angry right before it lost its head. Or perhaps the predator that removed it took this beetle entirely by surprise.
I can tell you the EXACT date I last saw one of these beetles. They are reported as “rare.” It was February 16, 2020. Also in roughly the same spot. The beetles are associated with conifer forests and believed to prefer old-growth areas. There are some old trees near our home, but I believe San Juan is losing many, many trees. Lots to new home construction (happening at a rate that I never imagined), and some to the impact of a warming climate – likely accelerated by all the land use changes in the region. Many times I feel extremely saddened by the loss of nature. It is happening so fast. We are becoming suburbia.
Here’s my “Bug of the day” (for Saturday, October 15, 2022). I spied it on our wood table outside. It’s a Diurnal Firefly in the genus Ellychnia. The Latin name, Ellychnia, comes from Greek, lychnos, translating into ‘lamp’ or ‘lamp wick.’ Obviously, lamps are something associated with the nighttime or darkness. However, the common name of this genus, diurnal, means “day.” It’s only a bit confusing, right? Also, this is a beetle in the family Lampyridae and not a fly at all. The adults of this genus don’t light up at night or in the day either. However, they are closely related to the fireflies that DO light up, or luminesce, at night found on the East Coast. Since this genus, the Ellychnia, don’t have nighttime blinkers, they find their mates by detecting each other’s pheromones. Lloyd (2002), notes however that all species of Lampyrid beetle larvae have an organ at the end of their abdominal segment 8 that bioluminesces. I’ve never found an Ellychnia larva myself, but these are referred to colloquially as “glow worms.”
Ellychnia sp. firefly
In our area, the genus Ellychnia are also known as winter fireflies. This is because they spend the winter as adults, and are equipped to tolerate cold temperatures. You might even see them on days when we have snow. Larvae of this beetle genus hatch in early summer and live in leaf litter or under bark in decaying trees. They are carnivorous predators of organisms like snails, slugs, earthworms, and soft-bodied insects.
Winter Firefly (Ellychnia sp.)
Do we have any blinking species of fireflies in the PNW? That’s an interesting question. I found some literature that says we do, but I’m not certain this applies to the San Juan Islands, although a few sparse (and unsubstantiated) records from Vancouver Island, BC exist. However, western records for flashing fireflies are known from interior B.C. (Cannings et al., 2010) and throughout the western U.S. as reported by Larry Buschman (2016).
While fireflies that flash or bioluminesce are well known on the eastern side of the U.S. and North America, it is not exactly known how they moved all the way over to the western side. There is an interesting commentary in the paper by Cannings et al. 2010, with the thought that perhaps at least one of the species of flashing fireflies reported in B.C., (Photinus obscurellus), may have arrived via the railways.
Because luminescing fireflies are associated with wetlands, it would have been difficult for them to have crossed over the dry Rocky Mountain system without help. Cannings et al. (2010) report sightings across B.C. in association with railways, in fact, with most of these sightings falling within a 30 km distance from a railway. The thought is that even going across the mountains in drier areas, most railways wound through low lying valleys where the topography is more likely to cross through wetlands. Even the presence of railroad berms can create areas of new wetland habitat which may also have attributed to the westward distribution of these fireflies.
Sadly, we have, and continue to degrade, pollute, drain, and lose wetlands in our continued (horrific) adherence to the destructive and entitled ideology of Manifest Destiny. Development, ranching, hobby farms, and suburban sprawl have eliminated more than 50% of wetlands that previously existed in North America (Fallon et al., 2021). The remainder have been seriously impacted by chemical pollutants, light pollution, and overall climate change, contributing to further declines to remaining populations. We may lose all of the species of these iconic and charismatic summertime blinking lanterns without taking special steps to conserve and protect their habitat. We will have no one to blame but ourselves either.
Please support environmental conservation and protection in your community – wherever you live. It is important to reduce our human footprint in order to preserve the natural world, its beauty, and our life support system to perpetuate for future generations.
How can you help? Live minimally. Turn off outdoor lights at night. Plant native vegetation. Switch to use of non-toxic household products. Don’t use lawn fertilizers or chemicals. Better yet, get rid of your lawn and landscape with native plants. Eat less meat. It all adds up. 💡
Cannings, Robert & Branham, Marc & McVickar, R.H. 2010. The fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) of British Columbia, with special emphasis on the light-flashing species and their distribution, status and biology. Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia. 107. 33-41.
Fallon CE, Walker AC, Lewis S, Cicero J, Faust L, Heckscher CM, et al. 2021. Evaluating firefly extinction risk: Initial red list assessments for North America. PLoS ONE 16(11): e0259379. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259379
Fender, K.M. 1970. Ellychnia of western North America. (Coleoptera-Lampyridae). Northwest Science 44: 31-43.
Lloyd, J.E. 2002. Lampyridae Latreille 1817. Pp 187-196 in R.H. Arnett, Jr., M.C. Thomas, P.E. Skelly and. J.H. Frank (Eds.). American Beetles. Volume 2.
I found this little green beetle (and another sad little black and yellow beetle missing its antennae) in the pool yesterday. The black and yellow beetle is alive and… well, sort of living in a special habitat right now because of those missing antennae.
The green one was completely waterlogged and lifeless. I had left it on the table next to Drago’s enclosure last night, thinking I’d pin it and keep it in my collection. I am SO GLAD I DIDN’T stick it with a pin! This morning, I found it moving those little legs around at me. It was alive! RIP woke up.
Golden Buprestid beetle (Buprestis aurulenta)
Golden Buprestid beetle (Buprestis aurulenta
This is a Golden Buprestid Beetle (Buprestis aurulenta). They are a native species in the Pacific Northwest. I have referred to them often as the Rip Van Winkle beetle because they take such a long time to develop from egg to adult. In fact, the record is 51 years!
Why so long? Well, the developmental time depends a lot on the quality of what they’re eating (they develop in dead or dying trees) and miscellaneous environmental factors. When they come out as an adult, they leave behind a little oval hole. I think it adds character to your wood trim if you have them “sleeping” in timber used to build your house.
We had one in our door trim that didn’t make it all the way out and probably had been stuck for awhile before I noticed. It became a fascinating object to show anyone who came to visit our home.
Golden Buprestid stuck in door trim (March 20, 2016)
I’m not sure what gives them this beautiful iridescence, but they are undeniably one of nature’s jewels, thus the name “Jewel” Beetle.
Golden Buprestid Beetle – San Juan Island 07.27.2022
Golden buprestid set free to fly away in the forest.
Yesterday I was the lifeguard. And, I had swimmers needing saving!
Hister Beetle (Genus Margarinotus I believe) – April 7, 2022 San Juan Island, WA
Here’s one of the species I used a piece of cardboard to rescue from drowning. This is a beetle in the family Histeridae, also known as a Clown Beetle. I told him no more clowning around without a life jacket. 🤣 Watch as it wrings its hindwings out, rolling them in under the leathery elytra (the outer wings).
I believe this beetle is in the genus Margarinotus. For ID beyond this, I’d need more time and a lot of patience. However, I can tell you I’ve learned some species of Hister beetles are associated with the nests of rodents, birds, and even ants and termites. They are pest predators, meaning they eat other insects at all life stages. They also are especially adept predators of fly eggs. You can often find them in leaf litter, dung, carrion, and under tree bark, or living in those ant mounds where they may be fed by ants, eat the leftovers the ants discard, or in some cases, they eat the ants!
Some other curious tidbits about these beetles include their acting ability. They play dead (Thanatosis) to deter predators. The word Hister is derived from Latin and means “Actor.”
Hister Beetle (I believe Margarinotus sp) – San Juan Island, WA
Wenzel, R. L. (1960). Three new histerid beetles from the Pacific Northwest, with records and synonymies of additional species (Coleoptera: Histeridae). https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2847194
Bugs like Blue. I found a bunch of these little ones yesterday floating on the surface of our above ground pool. They were also all along the outside of the pool (which is blue). I scooped out all the ones that were struggling in the water and watched as this one dried itself off. It reminded me of watching my cats grooming after finishing a meal of Fancy Feast wet cat food.
Listrus Flower Beetle on Side of Pool – April 7, 2022 – San Juan Island, WA
A Soft-Winged Flower Beetle, these are in the family Melyridae (Genus Listrus). At only about 2 mm in size, they were indeed pretty tiny. Listrus beetles feed on both pollen and nectar. They are covered with dense setae (little hairs) that pollen easily adheres to. Check out the paper reference below and learn how they have been recognized as one of the most important pollinators of plants in Western North America.
I picked up these acorns (Quercus sp.) when I visited my folks recently in Texas. They have several oak trees on their property and there was an abundance of acorns all over the ground this year, so I brought a few home with me in a ziplock bag. I like acorns. My mom used to draw little faces on them and I had acorn “people” to play with when I was a child.
Acorn “person”
I also found a very cool bug under one of those oak trees while I was there. This strange looking creature is one of the Nut and Acorn Weevils (Curculio sp). It has an extremely long snout. When you find out how this weevil uses it to DRILL, you may be amazed. The adult female weevil will use this drill on her very long snout to make a hole in those acorns!
Nut and Acorn Weevil (Curculio sp).Nut and Acorn Weevil (Curculio sp).Nut and Acorn Weevil (Curculio sp).
Keep reading. It really is amazing.
A female weevil will make a hole in the acorn so she can put her eggs inside it!
Hole drilled by Nut and Acorn Weevil
Because I like word games, I thought I’d point out to you that rearranging the letters in the word weevil will make the words “we live?” Well, those eggs hatch into baby weevils who LIVE in a little house that is an acorn (and sometimes in other nuts too). Some folks call them grubs or worms. They are actually the larvae of the adult weevil mom who selected the acorn for her nursery.
If you are assessing this situation from an agricultural perspective (say that nut is a pecan), invested in harvesting a profitable crop, you might be feeling very worried. Sometimes the worry may indeed be justified, but in many cases, like with these acorns, the tree has evolved a strategy to deal with occasional waves of weevils and other insects we consider pests. In actuality, they are just utilizing the resources of the tree like we do when WE (the humans) eat the nut or fruit.
Larvae of Nut and Acorn Weevil (Curculio sp).
I’m going to name the trees’ strategy of dealing with this bug FEAR NO WEEVIL. However, the actual scientific moniker for this strategy (and it applies to other pests and adverse weather stressors as well) is MASTING. The word mast has been used since way back in the Middle Ages to refer to the acorns and seeds of forest trees that drop and accumulate on the ground. It comes from Old English, mæst. Essentially, masting is an ecological term referring to the highly variable and often synchronized periodic cycles of fruiting/seeding in the reproductive processes of trees (both forest and fruit trees).
How is it a strategy for circumventing the deleterious affects of pests? Well, the idea is that in some years, bumper crops of nuts and seeds are produced in order to satiate the predators, so some are left to germinate and continue new generations. In this particular case, you could think of it as the oak trees sacrificing some of their offspring to the weevil gods. When there are more acorns than there are adult female weevils, some of those acorns will escape the weevil drill and makeover into little bug nurseries.
In reality, this relationship is much more complicated. In some cases, acorns parasitized by only a few weevil larvae will germinate, while those acorns with many larvae will not. The trees’ bumper crops of seeds and nuts will also cycle with years of low production, where resources are scarce for the weevil (and other organisms). Nature is incredibly dynamic though. Studies show some species of weevils have adapted a counter mechanism to circumvent the trees’ strategy of masting. It’s called prolonged diapause. This means these weevils are able to sleep longer (more than one year) as they develop in order to synchronize adult emergence with years when the trees’ seed/nut production is high.
If you are interested in reading more about the history and MYSTERY of masting, I encourage you to delve into the literature I’ve listed in the references below. It’s quite fascinating – especially going back in history to the link between masting and pannage. Way more than I can cover here. Check it out.
Higaki M (2016) Prolonged diapause and seed predation by the acorn weevil, Curculio robustus, in relation to masting of the deciduous oak Quercus acutissima. Entomol Exp Appl 159:338–346. https://doi.org/10.1111/eea.12444
Koenig WD. 2021 A brief history of masting research. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 376: 20200423. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0423 Koenig, W. D., & Knops, J. M. H. (2005). The Mystery of Masting in Trees: Some trees reproduce synchronously over large areas, with widespread ecological effects, but how and why? American Scientist, 93(4), 340–347. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27858609
I found a’nutter weevil! They’ve been everywhere this week! Looks like this may be the Nut Leaf Weevil (Strophosoma melanogrammum). These weevils feed on the leaves of broad leafed shrubs. I saw it on a chunk of rotting alder. It was pretty small and tough to photograph in low light. Probably about 3.2 mm in size. San Juan Island, WA October 13, 2021.
The social media giant we all have become overly dependent on in recent years, had a big, giant F-A-I-L today. The entire site was down. I couldn’t share bug photos or look to see what crazy or amazing things my friends had been up to. I also couldn’t watch the fabulous video of the frog and bearded dragon that I’ve been replaying over, and over, and over because it’s so DARN cute! You can find it on Tik Tok if you can’t find it on Facebook.
In the void, I resorted to the fail safe backup. It’s called E-mail. I really feel old because I actually remember how we communicated before the advent of cyberspace – handwriting letters that you put a stamp on and eventually were delivered by USPS.
So, in my email, I actually had received two nice bug pictures I want to share with you. Victoria Compton (who is running for Friday Harbor Port Commissioner btw) sent these to me. The first, a caterpillar, is going to turn into my favorite moth, Lophocampa roseata or the Rosy Amelia Moth. The 2nd, is a ground beetle in the family Carabidae (Scaphinotus marginatus) – also sometimes called the Margined Snail-eating Carabid Beetle.
Happy Bug Viewing! Thanks for checking these out and thanks for sending the photos Victoria! You have my vote. 😉
Bugging You From San Juan Island 