''Moneilema gigas'', Pima County, Arizona ''Moneilema gigas'', Pima County, Arizona ''Moneilema gigas'' is a large, flightless, black

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

native to the

Sonoran desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Arizona ...

at elevations below 1500 metres. The front wings are fused forming a single, hardened shell. Collectively - with 19 other ''Moneilema'' species - ''M. gigas'' is also known as the cactus longhorn beetle. ''Moneilema gigas'' normally feeds on chollas and

prickly pear cacti ''Opuntia'', commonly called prickly pear or pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae. Prickly pears are also known as ''tuna'' (fruit), ''sabra'', ''nopal'' (paddle, plural ''nopales'') from the Nahuatl word f ...

, and is known to feed on

saguaro The saguaro (, ) (''Carnegiea gigantea'') is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus ''Carnegiea'' that can grow to be over tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains a ...

seedlings. Larvae bore into cactus roots and stems, sometimes killing more susceptible individuals. Adults also feed on the surface of cacti. ''M. gigas'' are most active during mid or late summer - the adults typically emerging during the summer monsoon season. Like many flightless beetles, these beetles have limited wing musculature with a rounded abdomen and thorax, similar in appearance to a number of other flightless desert beetles. Cactus longhorn beetles resemble and mimic the behavior of noxious stink beetles in the genus ''

Eleodes ''Eleodes'' is a genus of darkling beetles, family Tenebrionidae. They are commonly known as pinacate beetles or desert stink beetles. They are endemic to western North America, with many species found in the Sonoran Desert. The name ''pinacate ...

''.

References

External links

Range expansions in the flightless longhorn cactus beetlesEvolutionary Consequences of Dispersal Ability in Cactus-feeding Insects
Moneilemini Beetles of North America Beetles described in 1873 Taxa named by John Lawrence LeConte {{Lamiinae-stub