Identifying beetles - Not always an easy process

Long-horned flower beetle on oxeye daisy, Yoho National Park, BC.

Identifying a species can be a laborious process.  What makes it a challenge is the number of organisms that are similar (yet different) to it in the same taxonomic group.  Even looking at taxonomy involves a basic understanding of how organisms are grouped.  For beetles, it goes Kingdom (Animalia), Phylum (Arthropods), Class (Insects), Order (Beetles - the Coleoptera).  That may sound basic, but it gets insane after that.  There are over 160 different beetle families, over 30,000 genera, and more than 400,000 documented species of beetle on the planet.  

Thankfully, Canada has only about 7500 species of beetle, and we whittle it down in BC to about half of that.  Even so, it can be hard just nailing down a genus, let alone a species.  However, there are a few things that help in the process.  I typically go through a series of inquiries before I define something, and even then, it is not uncommon for someone to tell me I made a mistake.  Some species are easy (seven-spotted lady-bird beetle), while others, like the one above, are not.

Besides my many bug books (you don't want to know how many I have), there is always the internet.  This isn't convenient when access is difficult, and sometimes it is just impossible.  I often use Google Lens to get a ballpark identification.  This means I need a photo, which usually is exactly what I have anyway.  I generally have to add extra information such as location, time of year, or habitat.  Google Lens may nail the identification, or it may just get it down to the Family level.  Even then, I have to verify, but at least it gives me a starting point.

For the long-horned flower beetle photo above, Google Lens gave me this:

"This insect resembles a long-horned beetle from the family Cerambycidae, possibly from the genus Cortodera or Brachyleptura"

When I included location (Yoho) and time of year (mid July), I got this:

This insect is a flower longhorn beetle from the family Cerambycidae. [1]

"Given the mid-July timing and subalpine location of Yoho National Park in British Columbia, this is likely a species from the genus Cortodera (such as the Western Mountain Flower Longhorn, Cortodera subpilosa) or a closely related flower longhorn like Acmaeops proteus. [1, 2, 3, 4]"

 At this point, I have to examine its suggestions.  I do this several ways.  I may use an image search for the species, go to a website such as www.bugguide.net or www.inaturalist.org to compare species, or even go to UBC's biology department's photo catalogue of beetles (click here).  When I am done my search, I can say what I think it is, hopefully, and wait to see if someone tells me otherwise.

Doesn't that all sound like fun?

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

 

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