False blister beetle - not so false, this thing will hurt you.

Red-necked false blister beetle - Asclera excavata - photographed today in Clearwater, BC.

A red-necked beetle?  I wonder why it wasn't in Alberta.

This is a false blister beetle.  It doesn't belong to the true blister beetle family, such as the black oil blister beetle does, which I photographed a number of weeks ago.  However, it still has the potential to create blisters with the chemical cantharidin that it can release if disturbed.  The chemical gets released from its joints; it is actually contained in its blood.  The chemical doesn't affect the beetle, but is poisonous or fatal if ingested by many other creatures.  

It turns out that cantharidin also affects many other insect species, so much in fact that it can be used as a pesticide.  The problem, of course, is that the chemical also affects humans adversely, and so its use is not widespread.

I used to confuse false blister beetles with soldier beetles, you can see one on a blog I wrote here.  The funny thing is that soldier beetles belong to the Cantharidea beetle family even though they don't produce cantharidin.  They are called soldier beetles because of their colours, not because they are dangerous.  False blister beetles belong to a different family of beetles, do produce cantharidin, and are dangerous.  I find that odd.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com