A Quiet Visit With a Golden Net-winged Beetle
Would you rather hear this article? Click on the above audio to take a short “Walk In the Woods” at Harmony Hill!
As we share our observations and discoveries at Harmony Hill, there are many things we hope you take away from each of our visits. We want you to know that some of the most interesting and beautiful things on this planet can be found a short walk from your front doors, and we would like for you to know that even plants and animals you may encounter everyday have amazing stories to tell. We would love for something you read here to encourage you to see that conserving natural resources is more important today than ever before and that making sure these things we talk about in our regular visits are here for future generations starts with each one of us.
But, more than anything, we want you to get outside and spend some time in Mother Nature. Sure, there are times we want to cover as much ground during a hike as we can, seeing as much of the splendor around us as possible. However, this week is a lesson in stopping and spending quiet moments in the woods, allowing your stillness to reveal species that might ordinarily be hidden underneath the surface.
While sitting on a fallen log and jotting down some field notes in our notebook, we listened to the morning songs of the birds and looked at some very early wildflowers beginning to break open well before the calendar would even have Spring listed on its dates. A Fox Squirrel shimmied down a Loblolly Pine and sat upon a low stump, surveying the area, and keeping a watchful eye to the sky. A Hermit Thrush hopped from the cover of an Eastern Red Cedar, quietly calling and scratching at the leaf litter. The calls of a murder of American Crows preceded the call of a Bald Eagle, as sure sign the crows were harassing the largest bird of prey at Harmony Hill. Dappled sunlight danced across the developing leaf buds of Sassafras saplings, almost like ripples of water from the heavens above.
As we finished writing the species we were seeing and hearing, preparing to return walk to another place in the forest, we saw a small beetle crawling out from underneath the carcass of a long dead Loblolly Pine. There, we saw a species that is quite common; but is often not seen due to its habits and behaviors. Conspicuous in appearance, believe it or not, this beetle is often overlooked or not even noticed by many in the woods.
This brilliantly colored beetle goes by a couple different common names; but, has just one very appropriate scientific name. Depending upon where you are in the world, you may hear this beetled called either Golden Net-winged Beetle or Red Net-winged Beetle. No matter what, we naturalists know this beetle as Dictyoptera aurora. (Before you ask, we are all naturalists here! Welcome to the family!)
First of all, let’s dive into the naming of this species. The common names might have you scratching your head a bit. What is a net-winged beetle? Take a look at the photos this week and you’ll see some very pronounced lines running down the length of the outer wings, or elytra, of the insect. Those lines have small ridges and resembled netting to early observers, giving us “net-winged” in the name. All net-winged beetles belong to the Lycidae family.
As a matter of fact, that leads us to the genus name of Dictyoptera. Quite simply, that translates to “net wing”, from the Greek “diktuon” for net and the Latin “pteron” for wing.
The “red” is obvious to most people, but what of the “golden”? In Roman mythology, Aurora was the goddess of the dawn. Any of us who have delighted at the rapidly changing skies during a beautiful sunrise can attest to the gorgeous shades of reds giving way to the golden hues of the sun as it lifts above the horizon. And, the species name is a nod to the goddess, Aurora, and her lovely golds and reds. (Side note… Au is the symbol for the element gold and oftentimes when you see Au or Aura in scientific names, it may be a nod to the color or the hue of deep yellow.)
That bright color makes this beetle really standout in the forest, especially when we look at the photos this week! It really pops against the dull late winter colors. That bright aposematic coloration serves as a warning to potential predators not to eat this beetle. Those same lines that run the length of the elytra are filed with a foul smelling and tasting chemical lacing the blood of the beetle. If the elytra are bent too much, or even broken, then this chemical that is specific to this family of beetles is released. So specific is this chemical, Lycidic Acid, that it is named after the family Lycidae. Like other beetles that expel distasteful and poisonous liquids, the Golden Net-winged Beetle can also secrete Lycidic acid from several jointed regions of its body. Lycidic acid is very effective in deterring potential predators from further injuring or eating the beetles.
So effective is this chemical deterrent that other insects, such as species of moths, have evolved to mimic the visual cues of net-winged beetles. This mimicry serves to trick predators and provides a level of protection my having similar colors, patterns and even shapes as species such as the Golden Net-winged Beetle.
In a future installment, we’ll discuss the various types of mimicry in nature, along with some examples we have at Harmony Hill. If we went off on that tangent now, this visit would be exceptionally long!
No visit with a species like this would be complete without covering diet. The Golden net-winged Beetle is right at home at Harmony Hill and the forest habitats found here. The larvae eat a variety of foods, including decaying plant material, fungi, molds, and even other smaller insects. Adults have a varied diet, as well. Though they still take advantage of other smaller insects, adult diets are mostly made up of pollen from flowers and trees, as well as nectar from flowering plants.
This adult Golden Net-winged Beetle was crawling out of a downed and decaying pine snag, which could mean it was either laying eggs or even looking for a mate. Sexes look similar, but the species is pretty easy to identify. They are between ¼” to just under ½” in length, they have the obvious lines down their elytra, are a lovely shade of crimson to lighter red, and they have the identifiable black spot on their thorax that extends to just onto the abdomen. Their antennae and legs are uniformly black and obviously segmented, clearly contrasting with the bright body.
Some days are busier than others and some mornings we feel compelled to walk farther and faster. But, we must remind ourselves that much of the beauty around us takes time to appreciate and observe. It is good to dwell a little longer and see what Mother Nature has to reveal. Had we gotten up even a moment earlier the other morning, we would have missed seeing this lovely woodland resident. So, please go outside and stay in that wonder for a few minutes more than you planned. Sit in those moments and notice something you may have previously overlooked. It might be a beautiful red beetle, or it might be another story Mother Nature wishes to tell. Just be sure to look and listen. If you do that, then the lessons of our visits are truly taking hold. And, for that, we thank you.