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NOTE: As of 2014, the California Beetle Project page is no longer updated. The original database and list of California beetles in the menu on the left will remain for the time being, but the information contained within is not necessarily current. SBMNH Entomology Curator Matthew L. Gimmel has divided up the function of the original database into two conceptual halves:

  1. The SBMNH Entomology specimen-level database, including all SBMNH beetle specimens included in the CBP database, which is now available (and ever-growing) through the ecdysis portal at https://serv.biokic.asu.edu/ecdysis/

  2. A literature- (and available specimen-)based checklist.
    3. of the Coleoptera of California, which is being revised and re-compiled by Dr. Gimmel, and, as of January 2017, is about 85% complete.



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Last updated 01/16/2009

 California Beetle Project > Species Pages > Optiservus quadrimaculatus

Classification

Scientific name: Optiservus quadrimaculatus (Horn)
    Order Coleoptera
    Superfamily Byrrhoidea
    Family Elmidae

Images (click to enlarge)

What it looks like: 1.8-2.2 mm in length. Its body is robust and dark brown, with four large orange spots on the elytra, two over the shoulders and two towards the end of the abdomen. The entire body is hairy and the elytra have striae, shallow punctures that run in rows along their length.

Where you'll find it: These beetles are found in the streams of the Sierra Nevada and northeastern California.

Natural History: Both the larvae and adults of this species are found in the gravel of stream beds ranging in temperature from warm to very cool. Typically, they are not found at elevations higher than 6,000 feet.

This page was written by Maren Farnum, a 2005 California Beetle Project intern.



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