{"id":4740,"date":"2024-07-31T14:25:46","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T14:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=4740"},"modified":"2026-08-23T10:48:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T10:48:27","slug":"2024-07-mysterious-fungus-beetle-in-la-perla-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2024-07-mysterious-fungus-beetle-in-la-perla-en\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery beetle in La Perla: An unexpected erotylid in Ecuador"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Iphiclus bimaculatus <\/em>is a pleasing fungus beetle (<em>Erotylidae<\/em>: <em>Saccomorphus<\/em>) first described in 1775 by Danish entomologist Johann Christian Fabricius. Native to South America\u2014and historically recorded primarily in Brazil\u2014these beetles and their larvae feed on wood-decaying polypores and shelf fungi, playing a quiet yet vital role in forest decomposition. I encountered this handsome individual while exploring the protected forest of &#8220;La Perla&#8221; in the Santo Domingo province of Ecuador. I initially misidentified it as a handsome fungus beetle (Endomychidae), but iNaturalist community members suggested <em>Iphiclus bimaculatus<\/em>. If the identification holds, it would mark the first observation outside its known Brazilian range\u2014unless, of course, it\u2019s a remarkably convincing lookalike species! Unfortunately, it took off before I could snap more than a single, slightly soft photo. I hope to cross paths with this elusive beetle again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iphiclus bimaculatus is a pleasing fungus beetle (Erotylidae: Saccomorphus) first described in 1775 by Danish entomologist Johann Christian Fabricius. Native [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[677],"tags":[],"countries":[74,73],"order-category":[43,60,756],"class_list":["post-4740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mycophages-fungivores","countries-ecuador","countries-south-america","order-category-insects-beetles","order-category-insects","order-category-insects-beetles-pleasing-fungus-beetles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4740"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9225,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4740\/revisions\/9225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4740"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=4740"},{"taxonomy":"order-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/order-category?post=4740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}