Texas Beetle Information

Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn

Delta Flower Scarab

Trigonopeltastes delta (Förster)

Family Scarabaeidae, Subfamily Cetoniinae, Tribe Trichiini

Gainesville, Alachua Co., Florida
September 25, 2004 (Alan Chin-Lee)

Trigonopeltastes delta Forster - Trigonopeltastes delta

Barton Creek Greenbelt, e. of Hwy 360
Austin, Travis Co., Texas
May 22, 2011 (M. Quinn)

Texas County Range Map for Trigonopeltastes delta

Delta Flower Scarab - Trigonopeltastes delta (Förster)

County Record Data from E.G. Riley, Apr. 2008

Range: Widely distributed in the eastern half of the United States, west to central Texas.

Adult Activity: May - October per the 123 specimens in the TAMUIC, most common in June and July.

Larval Host: Dozier (1920) reared adults from larvae found in an oak stump at Gainesville, Florida.

Biology:

Pascarella et al, (2001) found T. delta to be one of the most common beetles in their study of flower-visiting insects in the Everglades National Park. It was found on 13 different plant species. One of their most amazing observations was of mass aggregations of Trigonopeltastes delta numbering in the thousands on the very large inflorescences of Sabal palm (Sabal palmetto). However, Taber & Fleenor (2005) only found several T. delta as they flew from frostweed (Verbesina virginica) in the understory of Palmetto State Park. They may have found so few as Palmetto State Park is on the edge of this species distribution. Fontes et al (1994) found T. delta on less than half of their surveys of goldenrod (Solidago spp.) in Gainesville, probably due to the lack of overlap of Solidago bloom period and T. delta flight period.

Similar Species:

None in Texas. There are 15 species of Trigonopeltastes distributed in México and Central America. Six species are found in the Nearctic realm, and two species T. delta and T. floridana, are found in the southeastern United States (Arnett, et. al. 2002).

Etymology: Trigonopeltastes delta (Förster)

trigon, -o (G). A triangle, triangular
pelt, =a (G). A shield
delt (G). The letter "delta"; triangular

Biography: Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-1798) was a German naturalist - Wikipedia

Bibliography:

Arnett, R.H., Jr., M.C. Thomas, P.E. Skelley & J.H. Frank. (editors). 2002. American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. CRC Press, Boca Raton. 861 pp.

Dozier, H.L. 1920. An ecological study of hammock and piney woods insects in Florida. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 13: 325-380.

Fontes, E. M.G., D. H. Habeck, & F. Slansky, Jr. 1994. Phytophagous insects associated with goldenrods (Solidago spp.) in Gainesville, Florida. Florida Entomologist 77(2):209-221.

Howden, H.F. 1968. A review of the Trichiinae of North and Central America (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Memoires of the Entomological Society of Canada. 54:1-77.

Lago, P.K. & M.O. Mann. 1987. Survey of Coleoptera associated with flowers of wild carrot (Daucus carota L.) (Apiaceae) in northern Mississippi. The Coleopterists Bulletin, 41(1): 1-8.

Pascarella, J.B., Waddington, K.D., & Neal, P.R. 2001. Non-apoid flower-visiting fauna of Everglades National Park, Florida. Biodiversity and Conservation, 10(4): 551–566.

Riley, E.G. & C.S. Wolfe. 2003. An annotated checklist of the Scarabaeoidea of Texas. Southwestern Entomologist, Supplement, no. 26. 37 pp.

Ritcher, P.O. 1966. White Grubs and Their Allies. A Study of North American Scarabaeoid Larvae. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis. 219 pp.

Taber, S.W. & S. B. Fleenor. 2005. Invertebrates of Central Texas Wetlands. Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock. 309 pp.

White, R.E. 1983. A Field Guide to the Beetles of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 405 pp.