Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Pleasing Fungus Beetle!

Pleasing Fungus Beetle, Megalodacne fasciata, adorns my door jamb

In what could only be ascribed to the cosmic tentacles of Beetledom reaching through the ether and bestowing Good Karma on me, I walked out my front door almost immediately after making the last post, and saw the above. A Pleasing Fungus Beetle! Its color scheme even closely resembles the Tomentose Burying Beetle that I had just written about.

The trip to Krogers was temporarily tabled, and back inside I rushed, to grab the Panasonic Lumix and photo-document this extraordinary insect. The beetle was attracted to the porch lights, and from time to time I get some interesting critters out there, but this is the first Pleasing Fungus Beetle that I've noticed.

As the name implies, these beetles feed on fungi, especially the fruiting bodies. Apparently the genus Megalodacne, which includes this species, goes for those woody bracket fungi that stick like shelves from stumps and trunks.

Needless to say, I was quite pleased by the appearance of this little beauty.

5 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

You are on a roll with these halloween colors.

Weedpicker Cheryl said...

Wish you could have been with us today, as the "beetle mania" at the Eulett Center was intense. CBH

Randy said...

It is not every day that you see the words pleasing , fungus ,and beetle in the same sentence!

Dawn Fine said...

Howdee,
I have been enjoying catching up on your posts! Always love your sence of humor and excitement for the small things in nature.

Jim McCormac said...

Thanks all for the comments. Yes, prefacing a name with the word "Pleasing" does mute the impact of words like fungus. Perhaps we should have a Pleasing Slime Mold, or Pleasing Dog Tick, or possibly the Pleasing Naked Mole Rat.

Jim