Ironclad Beetle (07/13/2005) The ironclad beetle in the photograph on your webiste is Phellopsis porcata (LeConte) 1853 (nice picture!!). It is easily seperated from the genera Phloeodes(10-seg. ant.) and Zopherus (9-seg. ant.). Phellopsis has 11-seg. ant. and open procoxal cavities. It inhabits old growth boreal forests of North America and Asia, and was even proposed by the USGS as a bio-indicator of Snowy Owl habitat, but they could not collect it in sufficient numbers. Cool website. Oh yeah, if the Park Ranger who collected it wants to keep it alive, they like Apples, and can live for at least a year.
Ian A. Foley
Montana Entomology Collection-MTEC
