Beneficial Bugs - Soldier Beetles Soldier beetles are small, often unnoticed insects that play an outsized role in maintaining ecological balance. Learn more about the ecosystem services they provide and why you need more in your gard...

Soldier beetles: the small, often unnoticed helpers your garden needs. They pollinate flowers and prey on pest insects and they are beneficial in both life stages. Read more about why they matter to your ecosystem. Photograph (c) Judy Gallagher

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#BeneficialBugs #SoldierBeetles

Live specimens of Pachymesia incisa Westwood, 1849, showing the differences in the shape of the antennae, pronotum and elytra: (A) male; (B) female. Photos by Rogerio Dias.

#LiteratureNotice Biffi. Taxonomic Revision of Pachymesia Westwood ( #Coleoptera: #Cantharidae) from the South American Atlantic Forest doi.org/10.3161/0003... #Beetle #Beetles #SoldierBeetles #NewSpecies #Taxonomy

Everywhere you go, soldier beetles are just having at it.

#kansas #wildlife #wildlifephotography #photography #naturephotography #nature #canonphotography #canon #insects #parents #kids #soldierbeetles #beetles #beetle

Hey, solider beetles, whatcha doing over there? Whatcha...

Oh.

Kids must be spending the night at a friend's house.

#kansas #wildlife #wildlifephotography #photography #naturephotography #nature #canonphotography #canon #insects #parents #kids #soldierbeetles #beetles #beetle

Hogweed bonking beetles living up to their name #uksafari #soldierbeetles #hogweed #insects #bloomscrolling #nature

What a handsome creature. Cantharis rustica, one of the soldier beetles. The first that we’ve seen in the garden, and there were two of them.
#beetles #SoldierBeetles #ento #UKwildlife

#LiteratureNotice Yang et al. Mitochondrial gene rearrangements suggest a #NewGenus in the subfamily #Cantharinae (#Coleoptera). doi.org/10.1111/zsc.... #Beetle #Beetles #SoldierBeetles

#LiteratureNotice Kazantsev. A review of #SoldierBeetles of the genus Rhagonycha Eschscholtz, 1833 (#Coleoptera: #Cantharidae) of Siberia, with description of a #NewSpecies. kmkjournals.com/journals/REJ... #Beetle #Beetles

Fig. 1. Cantharidae in nature. Photos by authors.

#LiteratureNotice Motyka et al. Untangling the evolution of #SoldierBeetles (#Coleoptera: #Cantharidae) and the evaluation of the morphological phylogenetic signal in a soft-bodied elateroid lineage
doi.org/10.1111/cla....
#Beetle #Beetles #Morphology #Phylogenetics