Inordinate Fondness for Beetles

Sibylla | she/her

[beetlemaxxing]

"If there is a Creator, he must have an inordinate fondness for beetles" - J. B. S. Haldane

Sibylla "Sibyl" | She/Her

Hi everyone, welcome to BeetleMaxxing! I started this blog to learn more about beetles and gain an appreciation for them. Hopefully you learn something too!

My current project is posting a beetle a day for 1,000 days! You can see the first post here! If you have a beetle you want me to post, you can submit that too! It can have as much or as little information as you want (If you do submit info, I'll post that too in quotes).

I'm also currently running a beetle family competition! You may submit families though my ask box!

Just a note that I would appreciate if you don't assign morality to my beetles! Some of my older posts (I write a week in advance) have information about beetles as pests, but that doesn't mean you can call them evil! This blog is dedicated to science, and therefore I would appreciate it if everyone could keep it logical.

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Happy 32 Years of the Xfiles!: American Cockroach or waterbug/ship cockroach/kakerlac/Bombay canary (Periplaneta americana)

This is another personal one; I'm an X-files fan too! A lot of people think bugs look like aliens, so it was hard to choose a specific beetle (and I was originally going to do a lightning bug), but(!) then I remembered War of the Coprophages which is not only about Cockroaches but also stars everyone's favorite Entomologist from the USDA: Bambi Berenbaum (who's named after Dr. May Berenbaum)! X-files thoughts aside, here's the American Cockroach!:

These beetles are actually native to the Middle East and Africa, and might've ended up in the US from the Atlantic Slave trade. Of all the cockroach species, this beetle is the largest (it molts 13 times!) and has the longest life cycle (700 days)! It is incredibly fast and is considered one of the fastest insects. They have been recorded running 5.4 km/h (3.4 mph), about 50 body lengths per second, which is like a person running 330 km/h (210 mph)! The nymphs of this beetle are also capable of limb regeneration.

Images: An American cockroach, Dr Bambi Berenbaum, and one of the little alien invaders from War of the Coprophages

Calcification: cockroaches aren’t beetles. I know I know this. I don’t know why I put them as beetles. Ignore. This was written around two months ago. I never checked it. If this bothers you I’m sorry

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FINAL: Longhorn beetle vs Weevil

Longhorn beetle

Weevil

Voting ended onSep 5, 2025

It’s the final!! Have fun everyone

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This is a crazy outcome but I’m not doing anything about it because I feel like it makes sense.

Congrats Weevils and Longhorn Beetles!!!!

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FINAL: Longhorn beetle vs Weevil

Longhorn beetle

Weevil

Voting ended onSep 5, 2025

It’s the final!! Have fun everyone

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Semifinal: Scarabs vs Weevils

Scarabs

Weevils

Voting ended onSep 4, 2025

Again this is just one day go nuts

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Semi final: Leaf beetle vs Longhorn beetle

Leaf beetle

Longhorn beetle

Voting ended onSep 3, 2025

Unfortunately this is just going to have to be a day long so everyone go crazy

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Okay so I have been doing the polls for three days but now it says only one day or a week?? I’m not sure how to solve this problem…

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Ground beetles vs Weevils

Ground beetles

Weevils

Voting ended onSep 2, 2025

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Tansy beetle (Chrysolina graminis)

This beetle is 7.7–10.5 mm long and are native to Europe and North Africa! However they are declining in almost all the areas they’re found in. In the United Kingdom they are described as Nationally Rare. This decline is likely due to area development. As the name suggests they eat tansy though they may also eat water mint and bugleweed. There are five subspecies of tansy beetle. They have wings and are capable of flight but rarely do so, meaning they have to walk to find more food.

Images: Tansy beetle from the side and one on a Tansy plant

1000 days of Beetles (71/1000) <-Previous | Next->

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Salt Creek Tiger beetle (Cicindela nevadica lincolniana)

This beetle is 12 mm (0.5 in.) long and is native to North America. They are endangered and one of North America’s rarest insects with the current population numbering around 365. They are specifically native to the Nebraska salt flat, and have many adaptations for this. In particular they thermoregulate by staying out of the sun, spending time in shallow water, and positioning their body away from the soil. This beetle is also sexually dimorphic with the male beetles having white leg hairs that the females don’t.

Images: dorsal view and the salt marshes of Nebraska

1000 days of Beetles (70/1000) <-Previous | Next->

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Dogbane beetle (Chrysochus auratus)

This beetle is 8 to 11 mm long and can be found in the eastern United States and Canada! These beetles are highly polygamous, and it's a major part of their day-to-day life. They are also known to have hybrids with Chrysochus cobaltinus which is found in the west of the US. As the name suggests, they primarily eat dogbane. The kinds of dogbane they eat are poisonous to most other organisms, preventing the larva from being eaten by parasitic wasps.

Images: top view on a leaf, and a dogbane beetle on a flower

1000 days of Beetles (69/1000) <-Previous | Next->

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go, my scarab!!!! 🪲💪

This instantly brought to mind a scarab in a chariot race... so here you go

[pngblog]

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The patent-leather beetle or horned passalus (Odontotaenius disjunctus)

This beetle is 3 cm long and can be found in the eastern United States! They eat wood, specifically rotting logs of oak and hickory. Their ecology and symbiotic digestion (they have specialized bacteria in their gut for digesting wood) is similar to that of wood eating cockroaches! They mostly stay within their log, leaving only to find a mate or find a new log. Though they can fly, they mostly walk. When disturbed, they can produce a squeaking noise by rubbing their wings against their abdomen.

Images: slight side view and dorsal view

1000 days of Beetles (68/1000) <-Previous | Next->

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Darkling beetles vs Scarab beetles

Darkling beetle

Scarab beetle

Voting ended onAug 30, 2025

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Hey everyone! I unfortunately think I’m going to have to put my beetle challenge on Hiatus for now because I’m starting school again and I really need to focus on that. I have a couple more posts queued up and then after that I’ll do more on school breaks or just some special ones. My last post will be on Saturday but dw I’ll keep running the tournament until it finishes!

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Blue pleasing fungus beetle (Cypherotylus californicus) blue fungus beetle

This beetle is 1.4–1.8 cm (0.6–0.7 in) long and is found in the United States and Sonora, Mexico. As the name suggests, they have blue elytra. This elytra later turns gray as they age. Since they are a pleasing fungus beetle, they eat wood destroying fungi as adults. They can be found in meadows, woodlands, and fields.

Images: Two beetles, and a dorsal view of a slightly grey beetle

1000 days of Beetles (67/1000) <-Previous | Next->