12/28/2021: Weird Zophobas from the Florida Keys
Adding to the pile of quirky Florida finds, Alan and Kai were nice enough to slip me a pair of unidentified Zophobas sp. they collected on Key Largo.
Low maintenance darkling beetles are quickly becoming a new favorite bug for me, and having a Zophobas than the common atratus (once morio) is nice for obscure Tenebrionid bragging points. There are several nifty Zophobas species and at least one, Zophobas quadrimaculatus, is quite handsome. The quandary with the individuals I received though is enveloped in their appeal; we’re not really sure what species they are.
TJ Ombrelle is skeptical of their novel-to-cultureness and suspects they could be a form of atratus, but something about that doesn’t set right with me. Their body surface has a different texture and the punctations don’t seem quite right for atratus to me. A dichotomous key would be excellent but I haven’t been able to locate one. Supposedly there are only 3 species in the United States: atratus, subnitens, and opacus. That last one seems the best fit, but apparently ranges in the southwestern United States down into central America. Florida is a treasure trove (re: cesspool) of introduced species and it wouldn’t surprise me if a few species had slipped detection. Zophobas are not agriculturally significant and Tenebrionid taxonomy is a beast enough as it is, so perhaps these guys could be something off the record.
Regardless of identification, my job is to get the breeding as fast and as abundantly as possible. The pair is currently living the luxury life in a medium critter keeper in the office, with my hope being to produce hordes of squirmy larvae whose morphology may help to further elucidate their identity.
A fun fact… I was once deathly afraid of Zophobas larvae. The abundant “factual reports” of them being vicious and bitey gave me a minor Zophobas phobia and I could barely handle them. It took getting into many other bugs to finally break out of that mindset and nowadays I see them as just as cute as all the other big, squirmy-wormy Tenebrionid larvae.
-Kyle