''Korynetes caeruleus'' also known as the steely blue beetle is a

predatory Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

beetle in the family

Cleridae Cleridae are a family of beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea. They are commonly known as checkered beetles. The family Cleridae has a worldwide distribution, and a variety of habitats and feeding preferences. Cleridae have many niches and fe ...

. The species name is occasionally misspelled as "''coeruleus''" (e.g.,), but the spelling ''caeruleus'' is preserved by Opinion 604 of the ICZN, issued in 1961.Opinion 604 ''Korynetes'' Herbst, (1792), and ''Necrobia'' Olivier, 1795: added to the Official List (Insecta, Coleoptera)
/ref> The adult is between long, has reddish-brown antennae, a scantily spotted brown head and neck shield, and shiny blue

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 ...

. The larvae live in tunnelled wood that has been infested by the

common furniture beetle The common furniture beetle or common house borer (''Anobium punctatum'') is a woodboring beetle originally from Europe but now distributed worldwide. In the larval stage it bores in wood and feeds upon it. Adult ''Anobium punctatum'' measure in ...

and the

deathwatch beetle The deathwatch beetle (''Xestobium rufovillosum'') is a species of woodboring beetle that sometimes infests the structural timbers of old buildings. The adult beetle is brown and measures on average long. Eggs are laid in dark crevices in old w ...

and they feed on the larvae of these wood-damaging insects. The presence of ''Korynetes caeruleus'' indicates a heavy infestation of either woodboring insect. Adult females mate and lay eggs near or just inside exit holes, then die. It is not to be confused with '' Necrobia rufipes'', which is also a steely blue beetle in the family

. Both beetles have a significance in

forensic entomology Forensic entomology is the scientific study of the colonization of a dead body by arthropods. This includes the study of insect types commonly associated with cadavers, their respective life cycles, their ecological presences in a given environme ...

but for different reasons.

References

External links

Entomologie Stuttgart
Image Cleridae Beetles described in 1775 Taxa named by Charles De Geer {{Cleroidea-stub