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Diurnal Firefly on Queen Anne's Lace

Ellychnia californica

Photo by KarenSaxton
Published on Project Noah
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43.1804, -124.185

Field Notes

Description:

Black beetle with two red spots on it's head.

Habitat:

field near a pond at the edge of town

Notes:

I was walking with my dog and saw it flying and thought to myself that it looked too small to be a ctenocha (dayflying moth) moth http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/6891622 and took pictures with my "work"camera that I promptly put away until we had an event last night and I downloaded the photos on it. I'd completely forgotten about seeing this beetle and almost didn't upload the photos, as the red wasn't visible in the thumbnail.

Species ID Suggestions

Diurnal firefly

Ellychnia sp.

Comments (6)

I did more research and found several references to oregon and washington... so perhaps someone already did
I tried to figure out how/where. After re-reading the page though, it was that a particular field guide said everywhere except the PNW, but I suppose that amounts to the same thing. It's pretty cool when something like this crops up. Of course, as an agricultural area, it's always possible that something came in on a load of feed/hay from another area a couple years ago when we had a major hay shortage and were having to haul in hay
Interesting that bug guide says everywhere but the Pacific Northwest. They'll have to add the pacific NW, I guess
Why can't we have nocturnal fireflies? And you know, when I was looking at the photo, I thought firefly, even though I"ve never lived anywhere that had them.
Photographed
PublishedNovember 26, 2011

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