The harlequin beetle (''Acrocinus longimanus'') is a tropical
longhorn beetle
The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than ...
native from southern
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
to
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
. The harlequin beetle feeds on sap and is given this name because of its elaborate pattern of black, red and greenish yellow markings on the
wing covers of both sexes.
The species name ''longimanus'' is a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
word that refers to the extremely long forelegs (''manus'') of the males, which are usually longer than the beetle’s entire body. As an adult, the species is very large, with a body that can measure nearly 76 mm (3 inches) in length.
[ ] It is also famous for carrying
pseudoscorpion
Pseudoscorpions, also known as false scorpions or book scorpions, are small, scorpion-like arachnids belonging to the order Pseudoscorpiones, also known as Pseudoscorpionida or Chelonethida.
Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans sin ...
s as a form of
phoresy
Phoresis or phoresy is a non-permanent, commensalistic interaction in which one organism (a phoront or phoretic) attaches itself to another (the host) solely for the purpose of travel. Phoresis has been observed directly in ticks and mites s ...
.
The harlequin beetle exhibits
sexually dimorphic traits. The foreleg length, measured as the combined length of the femur and tibia, exhibits a greater degree of
allometry
Allometry is the study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, physiology and finally behaviour, first outlined by Otto Snell in 1892, by D'Arcy Thompson in 1917 in '' On Growth and Form'' and by Julian Huxley in 1932.
Overview
Allom ...
with increasing
elytra
An elytron (; ; , ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometimes alterna ...
l length in males than in females.
Large males may also exhibit strong curvature in their foreleg
tibiae
The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...
, which is not seen in females.
These traits aid the males as they fight with each other over optimal egg deposition sites in preparation for mating.
Males engage each other with their forelimbs in an attempt to flip other males off of the dead or dying trees that will be chosen by females to provide food for developing larvae.
The harlequin beetle contains three homologous
peptides, Alo-1, Alo-2, and Alo-3. Alo-3 was the first known peptide from insects to exhibit the
knottin fold.
It has a higher level of activity against the fungal species ''
Candida glabrata
''Candida glabrata'' is a species of haploid yeast of the genus ''Candida'', previously known as ''Torulopsis glabrata''. Despite the fact that no sexual life cycle has been documented for this species, ''C. glabrata'' strains of both mating ty ...
'' than the Alo-1 and Alo-2 peptides do.
Currently, there is a lack of treatment for fatal hospital-acquired infections and other pathologies. The peptide Alo-3 found in Harlequin beetles could provide a treatment for these severe, life threatening infections.
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q1418844
Beetles described in 1758
Beetles of South America
Lamiinae
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus