It's #TenebTuesday! This is Lepidochora eberlanzi parva Koch, 1958 (Pimeliinae: Adelostomini) an "ultrapsammophilous" dune-dwelling #tenebrionid I photographed in Namibia. Adults dig tiny trenches in the sand, perpendicular to the wind + fog, to collect water droplets!
November 19, 2024 at 1:03 PM
It's #TenebTuesday! This is Lepidochora eberlanzi parva Koch, 1958 (Pimeliinae: Adelostomini) an "ultrapsammophilous" dune-dwelling #tenebrionid I photographed in Namibia. Adults dig tiny trenches in the sand, perpendicular to the wind + fog, to collect water droplets!
It’s #TenebTuesday! Another “pancaked” #Adelostomini —Stips sp.—photographed at night near Gobabeb Namib Research Institute. The adult beetles spend the days buried in the sand, emerging at night to forage on the dunes. #Coleoptera #Tenebrionidae
January 15, 2025 at 2:26 AM
It’s #TenebTuesday! Another “pancaked” #Adelostomini —Stips sp.—photographed at night near Gobabeb Namib Research Institute. The adult beetles spend the days buried in the sand, emerging at night to forage on the dunes. #Coleoptera #Tenebrionidae
For #TenebTuesday here is a species of the genus Eurychora (Pimeliinae: Adelostomini) from Namibia—note the waxy, filamentous cuticular pruinescence & how it accumulates detritus to camouflage the beetle! #Coleoptera
February 5, 2025 at 2:50 AM
For #TenebTuesday here is a species of the genus Eurychora (Pimeliinae: Adelostomini) from Namibia—note the waxy, filamentous cuticular pruinescence & how it accumulates detritus to camouflage the beetle! #Coleoptera
When describing the genus, Gebien (1938) separated Lepidochora from other Adelostomini by the absence of elytral ridges/carina, scale-like setae, elongated scape, & flattened/expanded terminal antennomere #TenebTuesday
November 20, 2024 at 12:42 AM
When describing the genus, Gebien (1938) separated Lepidochora from other Adelostomini by the absence of elytral ridges/carina, scale-like setae, elongated scape, & flattened/expanded terminal antennomere #TenebTuesday
The Adelostomini are "a very large group of flightless beetles with wide distribution"—mainly southern Africa; the tribe was last revised by Koch (1952) w/ "an excellent key for all the known genera ... but not for species. In most genera they are still absent" (Purchart 2010) #TenebTuesday
"[O]n a cold, foggy night the high and barren sand dunes ... were virtually covered with this form... The next day only a few specimens could be dug out from the sand and it seems that the Lepidochora burrow very deep in order to avoid the heat" (Koch 1958)
A #TenebTuesday bonus—a ventral view of Lepidochora eberlanzi parva showing some ultrapsammophilous characters: disk-shaped, compact and streamlined body; enlarged protibae; and other tibae widened and flattened—for "swimming" through loose, wind-blown sand! #Tenebrionidae
November 20, 2024 at 12:19 AM
The Adelostomini are "a very large group of flightless beetles with wide distribution"—mainly southern Africa; the tribe was last revised by Koch (1952) w/ "an excellent key for all the known genera ... but not for species. In most genera they are still absent" (Purchart 2010) #TenebTuesday