Darkling beetles are mostly medium to large, common black beetles. But with an estimated 20,000 species worldwide they really don't all look quite alike. And with +/- 225 species known from east of the Mississippi River in the US I am not going to try and guess which one this is exactly.
These beetles are flightless, having their Elytra (the hard wing caps) fused together so are most commonly seen on the ground or on the trunks of trees. But more likely one would be somewhat more familiar with the larval stage, commonly known as a mealworm, as these can be bought as bait for fishing or to feed pet lizards and such.
These beetles are flightless, having their Elytra (the hard wing caps) fused together so are most commonly seen on the ground or on the trunks of trees. But more likely one would be somewhat more familiar with the larval stage, commonly known as a mealworm, as these can be bought as bait for fishing or to feed pet lizards and such.
Darkling beetle on a tree trunk at night in Falls Church, Virginia
I am also continually amazed at the resolving power of today's digital cameras. This photo was taken with a Canon 80D using a Canon 60mm macro lens from a few inches away. But for this blog I reduce the size of the photos or the page size becomes much too large with a bunch of 5Mb images on it.
But when viewed at full resolution I found that I could pretty much count the individual facets on the compound eye of this beetle. Now that's some serious resolution given that could pretty much only be done with a stereoscope until fairly recently but is now possible with just a standard macro photograph.
But when viewed at full resolution I found that I could pretty much count the individual facets on the compound eye of this beetle. Now that's some serious resolution given that could pretty much only be done with a stereoscope until fairly recently but is now possible with just a standard macro photograph.
Darkling beetle compound eye
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