Our lovely mystery flowers of yesterday were chosen as the location for a liaison by two very energetic insects.
You had to get up close to see what they were doing, as they were tiny. If there are any people in the audience who don’t like kids to know how baby arthropods are made, you’ll want to usher them from the room now.
There’s seldom much excitement when it comes to wee little insect sex. But I did get you a close-up shot.
Raunchy!
And, of course, I got you a different angle.
They look a bit spent, don’t they?
These aren’t the best arthropod boinking photos of all time, but hopefully they’re good enough for you to determine what our amorous insects were busy making more of.
I was think along the lines of some kind of dipteran, but doesn’t look right. Perhaps a small, delicate beetle? The mating style doesn’t seem right for a fly, and neither does the head/thorax combination. Perhaps something like this, except not that particular one, because it prefers to live in (rotting?) wood.
RQ’s lyctus beetle looks close to it. I was thinking along the lines of click beetles as another possibility.
They sure do look like some sort of Lyctus, but but I agree that doesn’t seem right in this context. The other insect that looked similar to me is the Click Beetle, but I’m not sure that makes much sense, either.
But these guys look like they have no heads at all. Plus click beetles seem to have long antennae, which I’m not seeing. :( GO BACK AND GET BETTER PICURES, DANA!
T
The bottom one actually looks dead. Bug necrophilia?
Picture III confirms my suspicion; it’s the Darthvader’s Phallus beetle.
At least, if it isn’t, it certainly should be!
NEW SPECIES! YOU’RE FAMOUS!
Actually, if you look carefully, you can see the antennae (esp. in picture II, a little bit in IV) laid back along the sides of the thorax, with the head presumably bent down under it (straining with the effort?). So they’re not headless. :P Still looks like a Lyctus, but skinnier. There’s the blister beetle, which also looks similar, though with a smaller thorax / larger head.
However. The adult wireworm, also – yes! – called the click beetle, upon closer inspection, looks closest to me right now. Lyctus, after all, prefer dead wood to fresh flowers. The antennae position on this guy and the side-by-side here (though without reference to male or female, and wiki doesn’t say, either – going to take a guess, though, and say the male is the smaller one), and I’m going to confirm my identification as the click beetle. Common agricultural pests, so living the high life on a bed of camas sounds about right for them!
That is, confirm Lithified Detritus‘ original ID of click beetle, and crowd onto heliconia‘s suggestion.
If you check the time stamps, heliconia beat me to it.
Curses! Out-Googled again!
3 minutes, Lithified, 3 minutes!
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Say no more, Say No More!