Location: Highlands, near Victoria B.C.
August 4, 2011 11:25 pm
These tiny flying bugs were all over the pearly everlasting flowers. What are they? Can you tell me about their life cycle? Thank you!
This sure looks to us like a Tumbling Flower Beetle in the family Mordellidae, based on photos posted to BugGuide which states they are: “Common on flowers and foliage; sometimes on dead trees and logs. Larvae occur in dead or dying hardwoods, in pith of weeds or in bracket fungi.” BugGuide also remarks that they are: “small, wedge-shaped beetles; body arched, head bent downward; abdomen usually prolonged into a style or pointed process; hind legs in most species very long and stout, fitted for leaping; antennae long and slender; thorax as wide at base as the elytra. The body is densely covered with fine silky hairs, usually black, but often very prettily spotted or banded with yellow or silvery hues. The adults occur on flowers or on dead trees and are very active, flying and running with great rapidity and in the net or beating umbrella jumping and tumbling about in grotesque manner in their efforts to escape. The larvae live in old wood or in the pith of plants, and those of some species are said to be carnivorous in habit, feeding upon the young of Lepidoptera and Diptera which they find in the plant stems.”