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Project Noah Nature School
Epicauta pennsylvanica
Black beetles (?) of some kind
Alongside a gravel road, running between two farm fields, in a ditch surrounded by wildflowers, grasses and "weeds". Full sun and very dry conditions at this time of year
These beetles (?) could fly but seemed to prefer crawling all over these plants. I noticed a few on flowering milkweed plants and other wildflowers (wild phlox?) as well this day. I'm wondering if they were in a mating period as there seemed to be so many of them for a few days and then very few after or even before.
MichaelGeiser and LuckyLogan-Thank you! Could this be the one? It looks the most similar to my (untrained) eyes: http://bugguide.net/node/view/23806
Erm... no, it can't be a mordellid (tumbling flower beetle). The family is Meloidae (blister beetles).
Spotted on Aug 16, 2013
Submitted on Feb 16, 2014
