Again, a slow week, so we have an intruder right into Walkabout Studios/Deep 13, which happens far too often, really. Some of them seem to sneak past the weather-stripping, and some are waiting just outside the door at night for me to open it, though why this seems such a magical place to them, I can’t say. They’re always captured and returned outside, but occasionally they are forced to do a photo session first, and this one was peculiar enough to merit that treatment.
Despite never having seen the like before, I thought it looked a bit familiar, but I was also handling it with care since those are keepaway colors. The head, especially, stirred some distant memories, but it was of a species that I hadn’t identified then, either.
The overall length was… well, the main part of the body was about 25mm, but it had two long whiplike appendages on the hind end that extended this for another 8-10mm.
I did an image search thing, then double-checked through BugGuide.net, and it appears this is one species of false bombardier beetle (Genus Galerita.) I’m familiar to a degree with bombardier beetles, despite never having seen one in person, since they’re an interesting species that I would love to capture someday – but very carefully, since their defense mechanism is quite exuberant and effective. This, however, did not seem right at all, save for the color pattern – the head is not a match, though it appears other species in the same Genus have closer matches.
What it most appeared like, the thing that sparked the memory, was this, from seven years ago:
As you may notice, though, this is aquatic, and there’s no mention that the larval stages of Galerita spend any time in the water. But the shape of the head, the segmented body, and the pairs of legs confined to different segments is otherwise quite a close match. I’m no closer to identifying this one now than I was then, but they certainly seem related, if distantly. The heads are close, but have distinctive differences:
Most especially, my recent capture has a schnozz that this one lacks, but even the cluster of just a handful of ommatidia (eyes) is almost identical. Some centipedes have similar heads, but not as close as these two.
But really, that’s it this week. Almost had a meadow vole for you, but it was too quick to get under cover, and everything else you’ve seen before. I’ve been more buried in projects – need to go explore more.