Black Firefly - Lucidota atra?

This beetle was small - maybe 6 mm.

Habitat: Found on a rock in a mesic, mixed forest.

comments (6)

Pudding4brains

Lion

Howdy Christine, I don't believe for a second that this would be a Cantharidae - the whole habitus screams Lampyridae and it looks like your first hunch would have been much better. Only genus in the Cantharidae that has a pronotum shape that comes more or less close would be Discodon imho and I'm confident it's not that.
I'd say Lucidota indeed. L. atra seems to cover a broad range in size (7,5-13mm) and if the IDs on BG are correct (?) it _does_ come with a much narrower pale margin on the pronotum on occasion:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/786777/bgpage
But possibly the smaller Lucidota punctata (<6mm) is a better option? From the few images on BG it is safe to assume that the colouring of the pronotum is wildly variable for this species too.

Here is something of a key :
https://biologicalsurvey.ca/ejournal/lmb_16/lmb_1683.htm
Going by that, your seems a bit broader and not so hairy to me, so my money would probably be on a small sized atra ... but you know the disclaimer: Not an expert on Nearctic beetles ... far from it.

P.S. Same key as PDF here: https://cjai.biologicalsurvey.ca/lmb_16/lmb_16.pdf Posted 11 days ago, modified 11 days ago
1. Christine Young
  
  Lion
  
  Thank you! That BG image, assuming it is correctly identified, is very convincing. I was using a beetle book to ID this beetle and the photos of L. atra did not match this beetle. I was totally stymied. But, I should have done a bit more research, so thanks for the kick in the rear. Posted 10 days ago
2. 1. Pudding4brains
    
    Lion
    
    Ahw ... wasn't intended to be perceived as "kicking" ... sorry ... hope it didn't hurt too much ;o) Posted 10 days ago
  2. 1. Christine Young
      
      Lion
      
      Okay, let's call it a "gentle nudge" then. And, it was appreciated, no pain was inflicted ;). Posted 10 days ago
    2. 1. Pudding4brains
        
        Lion
        
        OOoohmpfff, all good *relieved* ;o) Posted 10 days ago
      2. Christine Young
        
        Lion
        
        <3 Posted 10 days ago

The Black firefly

''Lucidota atra'', the black firefly, is a species of firefly in the family of beetles known as Lampyridae. It is found in Central America and North America.

Info 3 0

Similar species: Beetles

Species identified by Christine Young