Windwolf
Crex Meadows ... Host to the Oil Beetle
Oil Beetles on Crex Meadows
October 4, 2007 was a busy day on Crex Meadows. People were all over the area, enjoying the large numbers of Sandhill Cranes staging on the Meadows. I found very few roads that had not been traveled heavily, something that is important for tracks.
The tracks above and below were very fresh. The winds on Crex Meadows had not distorted them yet, and the recent tire tracks were under the insect tracks I was observing.
These tracks were very large for an insect, around an inch across. Often, I am unable to identify the insect which leaves tracks in the Crex Meadows sands. Sometimes I am able to guess it was a spider, or a beetle.
This day would be different. Further down this one road I came upon the source of these tracks. It was a very, very large beetle leaving these tracks all over the road!
The body was very soft to the touch, almost velvet like. It held onto the sleeve of my jacket upside down and chose to drop off.
The picture below shows the Oil Beetle with a quarter for size comparison. A quarter is 7/8 of an inch wide.
The Oil Beetle is a flightless beetle.
The picture to the left gives a different perspective on how big the Oil Beetles abdomen is.
A snippet from an article indicates the Blister Beetles, and by description given, Oil Beetles may be used by White-breasted Nuthatches as a predator repellent.
"Use of blister beetle in bill-sweeping by White-breasted Nuthatch.--I described in a previous communication(A uk, 85: 477, 1968) how White-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis) sweep the bark in the vicinity of their nestholes while holding insects in their bills.
My final hypothesis was that tree squirrels are the chief competitors for the natural cavities these nuthatches use for nesting, and that the bill-sweeping may serve to deter or deflect squirrels by spreading repellent or other substances present in the bodies of the crushed insects."
Search for more here: SORA
Different articles indicate this behavior has been seen in multiple spots in the Eastern USA. More observations need to be done to expand knowledge on this particular 'tool usage' behavior.
A few more Oil Beetle pictures follow the Oil Beetle Taxonomy table
All pictures on this page were taken in Crex Meadows on October 4, 2007
Oil Beetle Taxonomy
| Phylum | Arthropoda | Anthropods |
| Superclass | Hexapoda | Hexapods |
| Class | Insecta | Insects |
| Subclass | Pterygota | Winged Insects |
| Order | Coleoptera | Beetles |
| Suborder | Polyphaga | Water, Rove, Scarab, Longhorn, Leaf and Snout Beetles |
| Superfamily | Tenebrionoidea | Fungus, Bark, Darkling and Blister Beetles |
| Family | Meloidae | Blister Beetles |
| Genus | Meloe | Oil Beetles |
