Dancing to the Tune of the Violin Beetle

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With a body that is thin as paper, it goes unnoticed through the brush as you walk through it. Of course, I am talking about the violin beetle. The scientific name for the beetle is the Mormolyce phyllodes, belonging to the genus Mormolyce, the family Carabidae, and the Order Coleoptera.


The genus name Mormolyce comes from the Greek word Mormo. That word pertains to the woman of Greece by the same name. As the story goes, she was a bogey-woman that had the inclination to bite and or kill the children that lived in her town. Her reason behind this was to give the parents of the children a well needed death-threat against their offspring.


Photo by Dr. Arthur Anker
Like all members of the order Coleoptera, the beetle has a hard elytra that covers the back of the abdomen of the beetle. What differentiates this species of beetle from others is the general shape of the elytra on the back. The elytra extends far off of the back of the beetle into a thin sheet. The shape of the elytra is similar to an oval, giving the beetle its name of the violin beetle. This beetle is native to the rainforests of the Southeast Asia. The body of the insect includes an elongated pronotum, head, and antennae. These features along with the elytra allow the beetle to be easily differentiated from the other members of the Carabidae family. 


For the larvae stage of the beetle, it most commonly lives in the branches of the bracket fungi on the floor of the rainforest. The larvae have the ability to dive deeper into the branches of the fungi when they are faced with an attack from a predator. While the beetles are in the larvae stage, they feed themselves on the larvae of other insects, similar to how the adults feed themselves (https://beetleidentifications.com/violin-beetle/). Like all insects, after the larvae stage comes the pupa stage.


For the pupa stage, there was not a lot of information that was able to be found pertaining to the specifics of the stage. What I was able to find told me that the pupa stage normally lasted 8 to 10 weeks, compared to the normal 9 months of the rest of the beetle family (https://animalcorner.org/beetle-life-cycle/). While the normal pupa stage of the beetle normally takes place in the winter, the stage of the violin beetle can take place at any time. After the pupa stage, the pupa grows into the adult stage.


The adult stage of the beetle’s life is characterized into different times. The adult beetles are most commonly seen from August to November. During these times, the beetles are flying around and able to be killed by one of their predators. The adult stage of the beetle’s life can often last upwards of one year, given that they are not killed off by a predator. The common predators for this beetle include birds and bats, similar to many other members of the beetle family. To combat the problem of predators, the violin beetle has designed a defense of their own. This defense is another point that separates the violin beetle from other members of the family. When the beetle feels like it is threatened, it secretes a liquid from the tip of its abdomen. According to unfortunate victims of the liquid, it has an odor that can be described as a mixture of nitric acid and ammonia. If the liquid gets into a humans eyes, it can cause a severe burning sensation. While the beetles have an elytra that covers their lower wings, this species of beetle lacks the ability to fly. 


Works Cited

http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2012/05/violin-beetle.html

https://animalcorner.org/beetle-life-cycle/

https://www.jungledragon.com/specie/10405/violin_beetle.html

https://beetleidentifications.com/violin-beetle/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/worlds-most-interesting-insects-180974748/


Photo Credits

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mormolyce_chenu.JPG

http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2012/05/violin-beetle.html




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