Lycid Beetles are commonly seen flying at dusk and may be found in flowers or on foliage. May be nectar feeders, but some adults might not feed at all, just fly around and mate. Lycid beetles are toxic and offensive in taste to most predators, which they advertise by the orange and black colours. Many other insects mimic Lycid Beetles. Both these specimens were photographed on foliage at Walton Bridge Reserve The Gap on Thursday 3 January 2008. They were very close to each other, suggesting possible sexual differences in the same species, though they may indeed be individuals from more than one species. The head is triangular and the antennae are long thick and serrate.
Photo: Robert Whyte
Lycid Beetle
The Australian fauna comprises more than 200 described species. The biology of the Lycidae is not well known, although larvae occur beneath bark or in leaf litter or soil, where they are thought to feed on soft, decaying plant material or possibly slime mould plasmodia or yeasts.
Photo: Robert Whyte
