CALLIDE – coeptus est: quia non pauca adhuc superest, plena imaginibus * in quaestione de larvae (Volo in tempore paucorum dierum,!). In volutpat, ego fuit extra cum a Berkeley amet alumni in monte de Hamilton et PhD candidatus Meghan Culpepper collegit pauca et quaedam sunt species Scaphinotus larvae! So the specimen from Monday was indeed the larvae of a Scaphinotus beetle feasting inside the shell of a native terrestrial snail. This challenge was a hard one since these predatory Scaphinotus larvae are rarely encountered and there are zero images of out there – and none of them feeding. Better luck next time!
For now, here is an undetermined Scaphinotus species. In the coming weeks I will have 4-5 species photographed and identified (by Meghan) – and the larvae will have to be sequenced for species ID. Subsisto tuned.
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