Bledius spectabilis

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Bledius spectabilis
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B. spectabilis
Binomial name
Bledius spectabilis
Kratz, 1857

Bledius spectabilis, commonly known as the magnificent salt beetle, is a species of small rove beetle.

Contents

Description

This beetle is 5 to 7 millimetres long and has brightly coloured legs. The wing covers are brownish and as wide as they are long.

Distribution

B. spectabilis inhabits the sea shores of the Caspian and Black Seas, the coasts of the Mediterranean from Asia Minor to Spain and Morocco, and the Atlantic coast as far north as the Irish Sea and the North Sea.

Behaviour

Bledius spectabilis, shows very unusual behaviour for an insect in that it actively protects its larvae from the parasitic wasp Barycnemis blediator and from the predatory Dicheirotrichus gustavi . [1]

Related Research Articles

Beetle Order of insects

Beetles are a group of insects that form the order Coleoptera, in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal life-forms; new species are discovered frequently. The largest of all families, the Curculionidae (weevils), with some 83,000 member species, belongs to this order. Found in almost every habitat except the sea and the polar regions, they interact with their ecosystems in several ways: beetles often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are serious agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle, while others such as Coccinellidae eat aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.

Parasitoid Organism that lives with host and kills it

In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionary strategies within parasitism, distinguished by the fatal prognosis for the host, which makes the strategy close to predation.

Kleptoparasitism Type of animal feeding strategy

Kleptoparasitism is a form of feeding in which one animal takes prey or other food that was caught, collected, or otherwise prepared by another animal, including stored food. Examples of this last case include cuckoo bees, which lay their eggs on the pollen masses made by other bees, or the hosts of parasitic or parasitoid wasps. The term is also used to describe the stealing of nest material or other inanimate objects from one animal by another.

<i>Rubus spectabilis</i> Plant species

Rubus spectabilis, the salmonberry, is a species of brambles in the rose family, native to the west coast of North America from west central Alaska to California, inland as far as Idaho.

<i>Nepenthes spectabilis</i> Species of pitcher plant from Sumatra

Nepenthes spectabilis is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Sumatra, where it grows at elevations of between 1400 and 2200 m above sea level. The specific epithet spectabilis is Latin for "visible" or "notable".

Sociality Form of collective animal behaviour

Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies.

<i>Chrysolopus spectabilis</i> Species of beetle

Chrysolopus spectabilis is a species of weevil found in south-eastern Australia. It was discovered during James Cook's first voyage, and became the first insect to be described from Australia. The weevil measures up to 25 mm (1.0 in) long and includes distinctive metallic green and black scales. It is found only on 28 species of the plant genus Acacia.

Scolt Head Island offshore barrier island between Brancaster and Wells-next-the-Sea in north Norfolk

Scolt Head Island is an offshore barrier island between Brancaster and Wells-next-the-Sea in north Norfolk. It is in the parish of Burnham Norton and is accessed by a seasonal ferry from the village of Overy Staithe. The shingle and sand island appears to have originated from a former spit extending from the coast, and longshore drift means that it is slowly moving to the west and inshore.

Dicheirotrichus gustavi

Dicheirotrichus gustavi is a ground beetle which emerges from cracks or holes to feed on tidal salt marshes after dusk. Despite living in a coastal environment, it has no cycle of behaviour linked to the tides, simply scurrying for dry land when caught by the approaching sea. It will eat the larvae of another intertidal beetle, Bledius spectabilis, if they are left unprotected by the adult.

Barycnemis blediator is a small parasitic wasp. It lays its eggs in the larvae of the salt marsh rove beetle, Bledius spectabilis, which shows unusual behaviour for an insect in that it actively protects its young from the wasp.

The Scolebythidae are a small family of aculeate wasps in the superfamily Chrysidoidea. These chrysidoid wasps are found in Africa, Australia, the Neotropics, north China, Thailand and Fiji. They are parasites on larvae of Cerambycidae and Ptinidae.

<i>Guyanemorpha</i> Genus of beetles

Guyanemorpha is a genus of beetles, the Guyane False-form beetles, in the family Carabidae. It contains one known species, the Spectacular Guyane False-form beetle,, which was found in French Guiana and first described in 2013 by Terry L. Erwin in the open access journal ZooKeys. It was discovered during a survey of the country's insects by the Entomological Society Antilles-Guyane (SEAG).

Dinocampus coccinellae paralysis virus (DcPV) is a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus of insects, in the picorna-like virus family Iflaviridae, which was first characterised in 2015. It asymptomatically infects the parasitic braconid wasp, Dinocampus coccinellae, and has been proposed to be associated with the paralytic effect the wasp has on its host, the spotted lady beetle, Coleomegilla maculata, which it turns into a so-called "zombie bodyguard" for its pupa.

B. spectabilis may refer to:

Bledius annularis, or ringed borrow rove beetle, is a species of spiny-legged rove beetle in the family Staphylinidae. It is found in North America.

<i>Bledius</i> Genus of beetles

Bledius is a genus of spiny-legged rove beetles in the family Staphylinidae. There are at least 100 described species in Bledius.

<i>Bledius mandibularis</i> Species of beetle

Bledius mandibularis is a species of spiny-legged rove beetle in the family Staphylinidae. It is found in the Caribbean Sea and North America.

Bledius fenyesi is a species of spiny-legged rove beetle in the family Staphylinidae. It is found in Central America and North America.

Bledius philadelphicus is a species of spiny-legged rove beetle in the family Staphylinidae. It is found in North America.

Tristram Dick Wyatt is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is a senior research fellow in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford and an emeritus fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford. Wyatt researches pheromones and animal behavior.

References

  1. Wyatt, T D; Foster, W A (1989). "Parental Care in the Subsocial Intertidal Beetle, Bledius spectabilis, in Relation to Parasitism by the Ichneumonid Wasp, Barycnemis blediator". Behaviour. 110 (1–4): 76–92. doi:10.1163/156853989x00394.