Insect Picture of the Day

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It’s official: I should have been filing carpet beetles under “flying” this whole time. Jason Peters sends in this photo of a carpet beetle initiating its preflight check. I like the wing capture here, but also the detail on the patchwork colors. Given that these bugs are about 2mm long, this is a fantastic shot.

Thanks Jason!

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It thunders through the underbrush, snapping trees and crushing bracken, heedless of animals, humans… even small rivers.

Oh, I’m not talking about the carpet beetle. I’m talking about that gigantic thing it’s riding on. What is that thing? It doesn’t even fit into the frame–oh, wait. It’s my kitchen table.

False alarm, people! Everything’s going to be okay. There is no need to panic! Your local civic authorities do not need to scramble anti-godzilla teams. Which reminds me, uhh… I gotta make a phone call.

This adult carpet beetle is about 2.5mm long.

P.S. Good news! The State of Utah won’t be pressing charges. They even say I get to keep my macro lens.

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I’ve posted carpet beetle larvae before, and I’ve been expecting to find an adult and post it someday soon, so I was a bit surprised at my own surprise to discover that last Thursday’s bug was actually a carpet beetle. Thank you everyone for helping with the ID; Susannah had the clincher by asking if the underside looked like this. Yes, I rather fancy it does.

I love how the legs and antennae seem to retract into slots when the bug is flipped over. I also notice the beetle scaling that we’ve seen before, that weird bumpy surfacing we seen on a shell at magnification. (Click the larger version to zoom in on the bumpies.)

I mentioned that I thought the bug from Thursday was a True Bug because I thought it had a beak. Take a gander at this photo and tell me I’m wrong:

Okay, don’t tell me I’m wrong. I already get that. It’s probably a side view of some mouthpart thingy. But what? Is it a mandible, or a pedipalp, or is it just some mouthpart thingy? Whatever it is, it looks lke it could go right into the bone.