Subject: Eight-spotted Tumbling Flower Beetle, Hoshihananomia octopunctata

Location: Pleasant Creek Wildlife Management Area, West Virginia

Stock Number: 06-30138

Comments: This 6-7 mm long beetle is the most distinctive species in the family Mordellidae. Over the years the species has been put in various genera, including Mordella.

The common name of the family, Tumbling Flower Beetles, refers to the beetles' defensive tactic of rolling off the flower head rather than take the time to open the elytra and lift off into flight.

Members of this family are fairly distinctive, usually dark in color and wedge-shaped when viewed from above. As this photo nicely demonstrates, the pygidium typically is long and pointed.