Friday, January 11, 2013

Ground Beetle Larva

If you recall, I showed you some photos of a larva from the family Carabidae (Ground Beetles), though at the time I didn't rule out that it could belong to the family Staphylinidae (Rove Beetles). Well, I'm now pretty certain that it's not a Rove Beetle larva. However, I'm still not sure what kind of beetle it will turn into. Is it a Ground Beetle or not?


I recently found another specimen of beetle larva, and as you can see, it has a different morphology. Notice that while the former's head is large in proportion to its body and its abdomen tapers more suddenly, the latter appears longer in body, with a proportionate-sized head, and each segment of its body has a dark, rectangular marking.


I'm thinking it's a member of the tribe Pterostichini (Woodland Ground Beetles), in which case it will turn into something like this: 

Mating couple.
References:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/15577 (Woodland Ground Beetles)

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