Saturday, October 31, 2009

Unknown Beetle Larva

As mentioned in the previous post, there was a small creature on one of the giant flowers. The question is, what is it? Well, I still have not come up with an answer. However, I had spotted a few of these insects in India.
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There are now two possibilities. One is that it is a globally-endangered trilobite beetle, which is mostly found only in dense forests. The second is that it is just a firefly larva. However, I have not been able to confirm what it is beacuse of one reason to each possibilities. The reason that it may not be a Trilobite Beetle is because it is extremely rare, and I had found over 5 of these in just a month. Reason to why it may not be a firefly larva is because these were all active in the day.
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Anyway, for now I'm just calling it 'Unknown Beetle'. I may need more help from experts to identify this insect. Anyway, here's one more shot of the beetle. This was the first and the smallest one I saw. It was together with a snail!
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Please comment if you have any idea to its identification. Thanks!

8 comments:

Redzlan aka Tabib said...

I don't know the name of this creature, but you have photographed it well.
I like your header pic too.

Shawn said...

Thanks Talib for the kind comment.

AK said...

I would say for sure,it's a female trilobite beetle.The three pair of legs are on the front three segments,and the second picture shows it has a suction pad on the rear,these are characteristics of the species.More pictures of Lycidae at http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Lycidae#page=0
You are very lucky to have seen this rare creature frequently.Maybe you can add the pictures to Flickr to make the collection more complete.

Shawn said...

Thanks AK for the information. Well, it seems that majority are saying that this is a Trilobite Beetle. Maybe it is, but the only thing is that it was so commonly seen in just a rural area... But do you think its possible for it to be a firefly larva? I'll try to add more photos to Flickr anyway.

AK said...

Too bad I can't say anyhing about firefly though.They are extremely rare here,what more with seeing the larva.It seems that all firefly larvae are glows,perhaps you can use that as a guide.Or maybe you can discern between them by looking at the habitat they were found,and availability of food sources.

Shawn said...

Well, fireflies are extremely common here. I've posted about 2 firefly species a few days ago. Anyway, where do you live? I live in Singapore but I'm currently posting all about India. I'll have to wait till this December when I visit India again in order to observe more on fireflies.

AK said...

Hi,
I live in Singapore.I have only seen fireflies on P.Ubin once,and only 2 lonely bugs!So far haven't seen any fireflies on mainland,sigh:-(anyway,happy blogging:-)

Shawn said...

I've heard that fireflies are common in Pulau semakau (at night). Visit tidechaser.blogspot.com

Anyway I'll try finding more of these this Dec when I'm visitng India again.

P.S Do tell me if you have a blog so that I can visit and comment too. :)

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