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Subfamily: Nemognathinae
About one centimeter long (1/2 inch). Body is red with black legs, antennae and eyes.
I found this blister beetle in a small prairie area at Mineopa State Park in Minnesota on this black-eyed susan.
This family of beetles gets their name from a toxin they secrete called Cantharidin, which may blister the skin.
Spotted on Jun 24, 2010
Submitted on May 30, 2011
2 Comments
Yes, my search led me to a page in bugguide.net that suggested that some of these species physically resemble each other so much that microscopic examination is the only way to ID to species. The Northwoods series of books are great. I think I've got all of them sitting right here on my desk and I reach for them often, but they are necessarily limited in scope, but I find they get me in the right area to conduct more comprehensive searches elsewhere. I probably started on this spotting with Insects of the Northwoods, went to bugguide and other sources and finally gave up and simply went with Nemognathinae as being broad enough that I wasn't mis-identifying the beetle. My spotting may very well be Nemognatha lutea lutea or possibly some other look-alike species. Just not sure. Interesting insects....
Interesting comparison of blister beetle spottings with my spotting 6329007. Checking further found pretty close match to my blister beetle on bugguide that suggested Nemognatha piazata. http://bugguide.net/node/view/464298/bgi...... However, best match of appearance and description of my spotting found in Insects of the North Woods by Jeffrey Hahn which had Nemognatha lutea lutea.