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Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn
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(Adult beetles are firefly mimics!)
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Range: Oklahoma to Arizona, Texas, and Mexico, south to Costa Rica
Adult Activity: March to June in southern Texas. Common on the foliage of Verbesina microptera at Welder Wildlife Refuge
Larval Hosts: Stems & roots of asters and other Asteraceae?
Note: Adults are firefly mimics, family Lampyridae
Type Specimen: Mecas ruficollis Horn, 1878 - MCZ Type Database @ Harvard Entomology
Similar Species:
There are 18 species within Mecas in three subgenera (Monné & Hovore, 2005). Ten species in two subgenera occur in the U.S. and Mexico (Arnett et al. 2002).
Texas Taxa:
Mecas cana saturnina (LeConte)
Mecas cineracea Casey
Mecas confusa Chemsak & Linsley
Mecas linsleyi Knull
Mecas marginella LeConte
Mecas pergrata (Say)
Mecas rotundicollis (Thomson)
Etymology: Mecas rotundicollis
meco (G). Long; length
rotund (L). Round
coll, -i (L). The neck; a hill
Author: James Thomson (1828-1897)
Arnett, R.H., Jr., M.C. Thomas, P.E. Skelley & J.H. Frank. (editors). 2002. American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL. xiv + 861 pp.
Borror, D.J. 1960. Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms. National Press Books, Palo Alto. v + 134 pp.
Chemsak, J.A. & E.G. Linsley . 1973. The genus Mecas LeConte (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 39: 141-184.
Hovore, F.T., R.L. Penrose & E.F. Giesbert 1978. Notes on North American Cerambycidae. Entomological News, 89(2 & 3): 95-100.
Hovore, F.T., R.L. Penrose & R.W. Neck. 1987. The Cerambycidae, or longhorned beetles, of southern Texas: a faunal survey (Coleoptera). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 44(13): 283-334, 20 figs.
Knull, J.N. 1975. A new species of Mecas from Texas. Ohio Journal of Science, 75(3): 130-131.
Linsley E.G. & J.A. Chemsak. 1995. Cerambycidae of North America. Part VII, No. 2. Taxonomy and Classification of the Subfamily Lamiinae, Tribes Acanthocinini through Hemilophini. University of California Publications in Entomology, 114: 1-292.
Monné, M.A. & F.T. Hovore. 2005. Electronic Checklist of the Cerambycidae of the Western Hemisphere. 393 pp.
01 Dec 2008 © Mike Quinn / Texas Entomology / Texas Beetle Information
