Attribution to follow. And yes, I realise that this image is beyond awful, but would you believe that this was the best that I could find?
Also, you may notice that there's been a bit of a design change here. All credit for that goes to Edward, the benevolent overlord of Field of Science.
Update: Identity now available here. Image from Seevers (1957).
It looks like a wingless firefly (Coleotera: Lampyridae), those exist don't they? I've absolutely no time to go googling around.
ReplyDeletemerry christmas all
Some kind of cockroach nymph? Based solely on jizz and the oval pronotum. Antennae look wrong for Blattodea but I'm not feeling inspired!!
ReplyDeleteTermite? Or insect or something?
ReplyDeleteOverall, it looks like a staphylinid beetle, perhaps an aleocharine, to me. Of course, this begs the question of why you would post it. So, it must be doing something interesting. Staphylinids seem more bizarrely diverse in their ecological associations than most beetles, but this doesn't look like any of the ant or termite associates that I've seen and I'm not having any luck googling staphylinid and any modifier I can think of. Stumped, I guess.
ReplyDeleteYes, it sure looks like an aleocharine staphylinid and probably some kind of termitophile given its somewhat "fat" abdomen.
ReplyDeleteTachiona deplanata of the Aleocharinae? From Mexico.
ReplyDeleteAdults and larvae of the genus Tachiona are found exclusively in the web-covered burrows of hepialid moth caterpillars, in the wood of shrubs.
ReplyDeleteAt least 8 spp., this is definitely not T. monteverdensis but I can't find pics of any of the others apart from T. deplanata so it is probably one of the others like T. elegans, T. latipennis, T. mexicana, T. nitida or T. oaxacaensis.
ReplyDeletePeople certainly did better here than I was expecting (and, once again, I apologise profusely for lumbering you all with such a rat-shite image). Three points to Dave (aleocharine staphylinid); two points to Leonardo (physogastry suggesting termitophile). Expect the full explanation soon.
ReplyDelete