If you were stranded in the desert, what would you rather see?

[LoZoccolo]

Poll question: If you were stranded in the desert, what would you rather see?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namib_Desert_Beetle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis

[dropkickpa]

1. I would be troubled if I saw this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis_%28band%29

[mike_c]

2. LOL-- I'm an entomologist...

...and I've always thought those tenebriionids that can do the water trick are WAY cool.

[XemaSab]

4. I had a beetle yesterday

that was black with a red dot on its back, high up near the base of the wings. Very shiny.

Any ideas?

[mike_c]

5. how big? pretty good sized...?

Anything like this:



That's a silphid burying beetle, pretty common.

[XemaSab]

6. No, smallish (about 1/2-3/4 inch?) and with only one BRIGHT red dot

:shrug:

[mike_c]

7. a lampyrid...?

One dot, or one dot on each side?



or



Both are Lampyridae-- the firefly family.

[XemaSab]

8. No, no, no...

The red dot (which was black widow red) was at or near the base of the elytra behind the head.

Edit: in general, it looked a bit like a dung beetle, only I've never seen one with red on it before.

[mike_c]

9. maybe a melyrid-- their colors vary....

The amount of red on the elytra varies from a lot down to the anterior two red spots. This was the best pic I could find of the red spotted morph-- it still has some red posteriorly, but some have just the anterior spots.



I'm done guessing! Post a pic, dammit!

[XemaSab]

10. Confession time: I didn't do well in zoology because all the little names for

all the little parts of all the little critters? Notsogood at remembering.

So that little triangular area at the top of the elytra next to the head? Or maybe it's not the head but the thorax?

At any rate, color that area red, and color the rest of the animal glossy black.

And just for you:

[mike_c]

11. LOL-- yep, that's part of the thorax, specifically the pronotum....

The elytra are borne on the thorax, too.

[XemaSab]

12. Here's a winning picture

Not the pronotum, not the elytra, but the area where the three meet.

Red.

Pronotum + elytra = black.

Scutellum? :shrug:

[mike_c]

13. ok, the red part in that pic is the pronotum....\

...which is the dorsum of the first thoracic segment. The scutellum is that little upside down triangle below the pronotum, between the bases of the elytra. The elytra are attached to the second thoracic segment, and the membranous wings, hidden by the elytra, are attached to the third thoracic segment. The legs are attached to the first, second, and third thoracic segments respectively.

I'll make an entomologist out of you yet! Notice the conspicuous lack of feathers? I knew you'd be impressed by that....

[XemaSab]

14. So what was it?

I ruled out red-winged blackbird already. :D

[mike_c]

15. I dunno-- red on black is such a common aposomatic color pattern...

...that there are just LOTS of beetles matching that general description.

[XemaSab]

16. Would it help is I said it *might* be a bug?

I went to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and they had a display that had similar looking critters next to the bugs? :shrug:

But they looked like beetles at a cursory glance. :P

[mike_c]

17. maybe an assassin bug (Reduviidae)?

[XemaSab]

18. Might have been

Looked like a beetle at a cursory glance. :P

[petronius]

3. Does Oasis have water on their tour bus?

If so, I'd rather see them. But if they're just going to prance around, I'll take the bugs...