Scientific name:Phloedes diabolicum
Common name: Diabolical Ironclad Beetle
Native range: Southwestern US
More information: Peter J. Bryant's guide to the Natural History of Orange County, California. See also Field Guide to California Beetles (Evans & Hogue), here at Amazon.com.
I was taken aback a few weeks ago when I first encountered this bug (I moved here from Illinois five months ago). At first, rather foolishly, I thought it might be a large piece of soot that had rained down from the Catalina wildfire. You can imagine my surprise when its legs emerged and it began to move!
It was playing dead, as it's doing in the above photos as well. This, I've read, is a stereotypical behavior of ironclad beetles when encountered.
According to Evans & Hogue, they will easily feed on oatmeal in captivity, but they are probably fungivores in the wild. (I also heard a report that they will easily feed on carrots as well, and that seems to be doing the trick so far, for mine.)
It's reported by beetle collectors that the exoskeletons of ironclad beetles are so hard that it's difficult to drive a mounting pin through them.
3 comments:
We just found one (ironclad beetle), and my students begged me to keep it for the class pet. I am putting in pieces of carrots. But seems to be feeding on a piece of bark right now. How do you give it water?
We just found one (ironclad beetle), and my students begged me to keep it for the class pet. I am putting in pieces of carrots. But seems to be feeding on a piece of bark right now. How do you give it water?
No water needed--they will get all the water they need from eating the carrots! I always just make sure I cut the carrot up finely, so that they have no problem biting into it with their tiny mouthparts. (Shredded carrots works well too, for this purpose, though it does dry out fairly quickly). Either way, it's very hard to kill a Diabolical Ironclad Beetle. With minimal attention, mine are still alive after five years! Where are you teaching? Would love to hear from you. Drop me an email: dpeltz@leportschools.com
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