two-lined blister beetle

(Zonitis bilineata)

Conservation Status
IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

NNR - Unranked

Minnesota

not listed

 
two-lined blister beetle
Photo by Babette Kis
 
Description

Two-lined blister beetle is a small to medium-sized beetle. It occurs in the United States east of the Great Plains. There are isolated populations around Denver, Colorado, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Salt Lake City, Utah, and there are a few scattered records in the central Great Plains. It also occurs in southern Quebec and Ontario Canada.

Adults are active in July and August. They are found in grasslands. They feed on flowers and associated plant tissues. The larvae are parasites in the nests of ground-nesting bees in the Megachilidae family and possibly other families.

Adults are ¼ to ½ (6.5 to 13 mm) in length. The body is long and soft.

The head is short, broad, orange, and ant-like. The eyes are moderately large and widely separated. The mouthparts are long, and they are directed downwards. The jaws (mandibles) are short and stout. The antennae have 11 segments. They are usually mostly black, but often the first two segments are pale. They are relatively short, about twice as long as the plate covering the first segment of the thorax (pronotum).

The pronotum is orange, shiny, wider than the head, and slightly wider than long. The front and lateral margins are evenly rounded. Sometimes there are slightly raised areas, sometimes shallow or deep depressions on each side. Pitting (punctures) on the surface can be dense to sparse, but it is usually moderately dense. The plate between the wing bases (pronotum) is orange, short, broadly rounded at the tip, and shallowly depressed in the center.

The wing covers (elytra) are cream-colored or gray, and they are long, completely covering the abdomen. On each elytron, there is a single, black, longitudinal line extending from near the base to near the tip. The line may be bold and broad, narrow and faint, or somewhere between. On some individuals it is absent. The elytra are nearly parallel sided, widest toward the rear, and broadly rounded at the rear. The surface is usually slightly wrinkled and distinctly punctate, but it may be smooth or be distinctly wrinkled and not at all punctate. On some individuals, there are three or four slightly raised longitudinal ridges, but on most there are none.

The legs are long and mostly orange. On each leg, the tip of the third leg segment (femur) and fourth leg segment (tibia) is black. On the front and middle legs, the last part of the leg (tarsus), corresponding to the foot, has 5 segments. On the rear legs, the tarsus has only 4 segments.

 

Size

Total length: ¼ to ½ (6.5 to 13 mm)

 

Similar Species

 
Habitat

Grasslands

Biology

Season

July and August

 

Behavior

 

 

Life Cycle

Eggs are laid on the underside of leaves. When an egg hatches, the larva climbs to the flower and waits. When a bee lands, the larva attaches itself to the bee and is eventually carried to the nest. It kills and consumes a bee larva, then feeds on the pollen and nectar collected for it in the nest.

 

Larva Hosts

Ground-nesting bees in the family Megachilidae

 

Adult Food

Flowers and associated plant tissues

Distribution

Distribution Map

 

Sources

24, 27, 29, 30, 82, 83.

12/30/2024    
     

Occurrence

 

Taxonomy

Order

Coleoptera (beetles)

Suborder

Polyphaga (water, rove, scarab, long-horned, leaf, and snout beetles)

Infraorder

Cucujiformia

Superfamily

Tenebrionoidea (darkling beetles and allies)

Family

Meloidae (blister beetles)

Subfamily

Nemognathinae

Tribe

Nemognathini

Genus

Zonitis

Subgenus

Neozonitis

   

Subordinate Taxa

 

   

Synonyms

 

   

Common Names

two-lined blister beetle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Elytra

The hardened or leathery forewings of beetles used to protect the fragile hindwings, which are used for flying. Singular: elytron.

 

Femur

On insects and arachnids, the third, largest, most robust segment of the leg, coming immediately before the tibia. On humans, the thigh bone.

 

Pronotum

The exoskeletal plate on the upper side of the first segment of the thorax of an insect.

 

Punctate

Dotted with pits (punctures), translucent sunken glands, or colored spots of pigment.

 

Scutellum

The exoskeletal plate covering the rearward (posterior) part of the middle segment of the thorax in some insects. In Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Homoptera, the dorsal, often triangular plate behind the pronotum and between the bases of the front wings. In Diptera, the exoskeletal plate between the abdomen and the thorax.

 

Tibia

The fourth segment of an insect leg, after the femur and before the tarsus (foot). The fifth segment of a spider leg or palp.

 

 

 

 

Visitor Photos
 

Share your photo of this insect.

 

This button not working for you?
Simply email us at info@MinnesotaSeasons.com.
Attach one or more photos and, if you like, a caption.

Babette Kis

Zonitis bilineata

Zonitis bilineata, a colorful blister beetle, on flat-top goldenrod. Photo taken at Barnes Prairie, Racine Co., WI on August 9, 2024.

two-lined blister beetle   two-lined blister beetle
     
two-lined blister beetle    
MinnesotaSeasons.com Photos
 
   

 

   

 

 

Camera

Slideshows

 

 
 

 

slideshow

Visitor Videos
 

Share your video of this insect.

 

This button not working for you?
Simply email us at info@MinnesotaSeasons.com.
Attach a video, a YouTube link, or a cloud storage link.

 

 

 
 
Other Videos

 

 
 

 

Camcorder

Visitor Sightings
 

Report a sighting of this insect.

 

This button not working for you?
Simply email us at info@MinnesotaSeasons.com.
Be sure to include a location.

Babette Kis
8/9/2024

Location: Barnes Prairie, Racine Co., WI

Zonitis bilineata, a colorful blister beetle, on flat-top goldenrod. Photo taken at Barnes Prairie, Racine Co., WI on August 9, 2024.

two-lined blister beetle
MinnesotaSeasons.com Sightings

 

 

 

Binoculars

 

Created: 12/30/2024

Last Updated:

© MinnesotaSeasons.com. All rights reserved.

About Us

Privacy Policy

Contact Us