Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Black Beetle ID => Galeruca tanaceti
Posted by tristram on 09-10-2011 23:37
#1
About 10mm long. Beside a path through woodland beside a lake.
Photo taken in Reading, UK, on 2011-10-09.
Edited by tristram on 14-10-2012 00:39
Posted by ChrisR on 10-10-2011 00:08
#2
Looks like a
Meloe ... very good find - well done :) Did you get more angles?
Posted by Tony Irwin on 10-10-2011 01:24
#3
Have to disagree with Chris on this one - I think it's a female chrysomelid, something near
Galeruca tanaceti
Posted by ChrisR on 10-10-2011 09:46
#4
Ahh, are the antennae wrong for
Meloe? I see them so rarely :)
Posted by tristram on 10-10-2011 12:57
#5
Thanks, Tony and Chris.
When I first saw it, its shape did remind me of a bloated female Chrysomelid dock beetle. I had a quick look through Lech Borowiec's site but his
Galeruca images lack the glossy blackness of the above specimen.
No other angles, I'm afraid. It dropped off into long grass and escaped before I could get a second image.
Posted by ChrisR on 10-10-2011 13:16
#6
Just doing a Google image search it does look like the glossiness of the carapace is a bit variable ... but it does look very like
Galeruca tanaceti to me ... the same shape of antennae & body.
Posted by Tony Irwin on 10-10-2011 14:57
#7
Male
Meloe do have strange antennae with a kink in them, but the females are more like this. One way to separate
Meloe from large black chrysomelids is to look at the elytra -
Meloe elytra overlap at the base, while chrysomelid elytra don't.