Clerid beetle (Checkered beetle)

Lemidia subaenea

Description:

A small brown beetle about 8mm long with "bristly" exterior. It had prominent eyes and possibly short antennae. It appeared to have long legs and could be a fast runner. The elytra appeared shorter than the abdomen which appeared to have reddish orange lateral margins ( pics #2 & 3)

Habitat:

Acacia -? species

Notes:

Thanks to martinl for identifying this beetle. Unfortunately, I could not get better shots of this little beetle and cannot identify the type of Acacia. This species of beetle is known to feed on psyllids ( hemipterans) on Acacia http://anic.ento.csiro.au/insectfamilies...

1 Species ID Suggestions

MartinL 11 years ago

Clerid beetle (Checkered beetle)

Lemidia subaenea Lemidia subaenea | Beetles - family Cleridae | Insect Gallery

6 Comments

Leuba Ridgway 11 years ago

Thanks for the information Martin.

lori.tas 11 years ago

I see that now Leuba, I took it for a click beetle first glance.

MartinL 11 years ago

Yes leuba. Clerids seem quite varied and I don't know who decides if its a clerid or a soldier beetle or anything else. However its wide bulging eyes are certainly distinctive and that gave it away. Actually as I as asking this question, I checked and the Clerids are determined by their feet segments (Cleridae can be identified based on their 5–5–5 tarsal formula - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleridae )

Leuba Ridgway 11 years ago

Haven't seen an click beetles around - this one is a Clerid beetle, identified by Martin L. I initially thought it was a false click beetle but the features didn't quite fit.