Hoplia Beetles

There's a reddish brown beetle about the size of a large lady bug that you may have noticed on your roses or other flowers in the spring. Here in the Central Valley it shows up toward the end of April or the beginning of May and enjoys resting on velvety petals. If there are a lot of them, the flowers will end up with large areas of feeding damage, but this usually isn't the case. These insects only come out for a single generation a year and their first thought has nothing to do with eating, they are looking for mates.


These interesting insects are called Hoplia beetles. Their name is italicized because it is a generic Latin name – no American species in the genus Hoplia have common names. We have several species in the US and all of them can be recognized by the single large claw at the end of their hind legs. Other beetles have two claws (or occasionally none).


This is a picture of a mating pair of Hoplia dispar, on a blackberry blossom. It’s a common species in California. It is different from other Hoplia species in the shape of the fine white ornamental scales, which are strongly elliptical to almost round. Most other species have more elongate scales or no scales at all.


This side image of also of H. dispar. If you look closely, you can see that some of the scales are partially blue. This is an unusual color for insects but for some reason Hoplia beetles are sometimes colored this way. One very striking beetle is Hoplia caerulea from Spain that has its entire body covered with these pale blue scales (it’s worth doing an image search to see). It looks like a morpho butterfly version of a scarab.

So don’t be too alarmed if you find these beetles on your house plants. You can pick them off by hand and dispose of them if they become a problem. They do have the general appearance of Japanese beetles (though less colorful) but don’t do nearly the damage. One species (Hoplia philanthus) from Europe is known to be a pest in turf and pastures and may require a more aggressive control program. Here in the US, however, our species are much less of a problem.


This last image is Hoplia mucorea which is common in the mid-Atlantic states in the spring. It is less common than H. dispar but can be found in forested areas just as the leaves are starting to break out – around the time of the dogwood blooms. Watch for a small insect flying a foot or two above the forest floor. If you’re jogging or walking fast, you may miss them. They have a ponderous flight pattern because they only use one pair of wings to fly. The other wings (actually the forewings) are only wing covers (called elytra) and are held upright and out of the way of the flying wings. This makes for a slower flight, and in fact, you can often catch up with them and grab them with your hand. Don’t worry, they don’t bite. The worst the will do is give you a stout tickle you as they try and burrow between your fingers. Take a close look, they’re quite interesting and they’re out because it’s spring.

California Condors up Close

Twenty Five years ago, I sat at a museum table and read the sad story of North America's largest bird, the California condor. It was doomed for extinction, or so I imagined and many beleived. The few remaining wild birds had no chance to survive given the environmental hazards that confronted them. The last condors were being taken into a captive breeding program in hopes of saving the species but I had no confidence that this would work. My memory of this has remained clear all these years because of the inevitable loss I felt at that time.


I have followed the story of the condor ever since and have been alternately hopeful and doubtful that the impressive bird would ultimately survive. This changed for me two weeks ago when my friend Steve and I took a couple of days to travel along the coastal highway south of Monterey, California. We knew that the birds were spotted occasionally in the area and hoped to see one, but we were also realistically aware of our slim chances. Our tentative hope changed suddenly, however, when we stopped at one of the many pull-offs to look for marine mammals (we did see harbor seals, sea otters and sea lions throughout the day). Steve glanced up and spotted a pair of the magnificent birds soaring overhead. We watched them for maybe a minute before they disappeared behind the hills of the Santa Lucia Range.


This was quite a thrill, but, as it turned out, we were to see several more at much closer range. A few miles south of Big Sur, we noticed several vultures (turkey vultures at first) swirling around a point just off the road. As we got closer it became obvious that several of them had white patches in the wrong place to be turkey vultures. We hurriedly pulled-off the road for a better look and watched for several minutes as a group of about eight condors flew back and forth near the cliffs where we stood. My attempts to photograph them met with mixed success and then the birds moved on. We walked north around a turn in the road and saw a couple resting on a ledge some distance away. Then we got particularly lucky. There was a heavy flapping sound and a group of five landed on a rocky ledge less than 30 feet below us. Then two other birds landed just a few yards away from them. It was truly a magnificent moment for me. The birds I never expected to see were now right in front of me. We could clearly see their wing tags and even the unique color patterns of their heads. They seemed to be posing for a picture and so I obliged them. Then to put a final touch to the moment, a peregrine falcon soared by, just above their perch, and several hundred feet below a raft of sea lions rolled over to take in more sun.

Cardiophorus aeneus

Here is a picture of a small click beetle (just under a centimeter long) that you don't see very often. It's Cardiophorus aeneus, a Western species that shows up infrequently in collections. I came across a population a couple of weeks ago just west of Kerman (Fresno County) California in the tall grass of an alkali meadow. I was actually out looking for another species and just happened to find it. It's pretty distinctive as far as Cardiophorus goes. It has a metallic bronze luster to it although this is hard to see through the thick gray matte of setae. The elytra are also a bit uneven on top, bearing a few broad elevated areas. this is different than most related species where the elytra are fairly flat, or at least evenly convex. It's a nice find.

Cabbage Aphids on Wild Mustard

Right now there is a lot of wild mustard in bloom around the Central Valley. It's a pretty plant but it's also a bit of a nuisance for anybody growing cabbage, collards, bok choi, or other cole crops. It's a nuisance not so much because it's hard to get rid of. The bigger problem is that it's a great over-wintering host for cabbage aphids.

I recently found one plant with over a thousand aphids on it. This image will give you an idea of what to look for. Compare this with what you can expect on your cabbage plants if you don't take care of the problem. Cabbage aphids are not just another aphid species that can be treated with the standard aphicides. They're a lot harder to get rid of than say green peach aphids or melon aphids. It's definitely worthwhile taking precautions to avoid this kind of damage. This is particularly true for growers that have their cole crops in the ground early.

This is the time of year when the aphids can jump from wild mustard to your crops. Some of the worst damage can happen early in the year before the aphids' natural enemies become effective. So enjoy the pretty yellow flowers - but preferably at a distance (and down-wind) from your farm.

Gibbifer guatemalae

Here are a few images I took this morning after playing around with the lighting on my camera set-up. I'm much happier with these images than I am with earlier images that I have taken with virtually the same equipment. I use a Sony Cyber-shot camera with a built-in macro lens (which cost me about $350). I have intentionally wanted a smaller and less expensive camera because when I am in the field, my equipment can get bumped around a bit in my backpack. So I have been motivated to figure out how to take reasonably good images of small insects with the same camera.

Some time ago I created a lighted platform to take pictures of pinned specimens. It is a 4-inch bottom of a 5-gallon plastic bucket (the top part cut away) with a circular hole cut out of the bottom through which I take pictures. Around the inside of the modified bucket I have secured small shelving lights (halogen lamps). I place this bottom-side up (with the hole now on top) and place the specimens to be photographed inside the lighted bucket on a white foam base.

This has been OK but the problem has been that the lighting contrast was too great between the bright white background and the specimens. These pictures are different in that I placed a black cloth around the specimens to damped the contrast. I think the coloring of these images is much better.

The Gibbifer specimen is from Honduras. It is an erotylid beetle that is just under an inch long - quite impressive. Central America is famous for its impressive erotylid beetles. The Phymaphora male has one of its antenna knocked off. The female image has both still attached. They are only about 3 mm long and were found in North Carolina near the Eno River feeding on a small fungus under the bark of a dead tree (in the middle of the winter). Phymaphora is an endomychid genus.

Haliplus eremicus

Here's an image of Haliplus eremicus. It is a crawling water beetle that is endemic to the Southwest and occurs only (so far as we know) in Clark County, Nevada. It is of particular interest to me because it is the first insect that I described. I named it H. eremicus because the name reflects a dry desert habitat, where it occurs. This species should be listed as a species of concern on state and national lists. As is well known, water habitats in the southwestern US are under constant pressure to supply urban demands - in this case to Los Angeles and outlying areas. It's hard to tell from this image but in live individuals, the color is more of a cinnamon, or even a salmon, color. It is really quite attractive for a small insect.

South Fork of the Merced River

We had an extra day during the week of Thanksgiving and decided to take a hike along the South Fork of the Merced River. The river itself is designated a Wild & Scenic River and there is a trail some three to four miles from Highway 140 to the old mining site of Hite Cove. The trailhead starts some 20-plus miles northeast of Mariposa (and a few miles west of the Yosemite National Park entrance) in Mariposa County, California.

November is a good time of the year to make the hike if you want to have the trail to yourself. The wildflowers that draw most visitors won’t be out for another few months. The scenery is nice nonetheless. Long terraces of moss-covered stones line the river and are reflected from the limpid slow-moving river.

Because the sun is low in the sky this time of year, Gimasol Ridge (to the north) kept the canyon shaded and cool in many paces while the bright sun also warmed us up in other places. The few autumn colors were clothed in a diffuse November light that made for a beautiful day.

There weren’t many insects out so late in the year but we did find a few things. Most notable were the several lady bird beetles (Hippodamia convergens) that had congregated en masse on the pines and other plants near the metal ruins just down-stream from Hite Cove.

Apparently Hite Cove was a mining settlement. It was named after John Hite who discovered gold here. There was once a small settlement - including a post office – during the late Nineteenth Century. There are still a few large processing tanks with fittings still attached, along the trail. In a few places you can still see old stone walls and even an old house.