Pinacate beetle

Taxobox

---

image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Coleoptera
subordo = Polyphaga
superfamilia = Tenebrionoidea
familia = Tenebrionidae
genus = Eleodes

The pinacate beetle, also known as the stink beetle, is a species of darkling beetle in the genus "Eleodes" endemic to the Sonoran Desert and adjacent regions of the U.S. Southwest and Mexico, usually the species "Eleodes obscurus". The name is also loosely applied to a number of closely related species of "Eleodes", many of which are not easily distinguished from each other. The name "pinacate" is Mexican Spanish, derived from the Nahuatl (Aztec) name for the bug, "pinacatl", which translates as "black beetle".

The pinacate beetle is noted for its defensive tactic of standing on its head and squirting a noxious spray. This has earned it the additional names of clown bug and stink bug, names also applied to other unrelated insects.

ee also

Pinacate Peaks - a volcanic range on the Sonora-Arizona border

References

*http://www.ucpress.edu/books/cnhg/cnhgo_s06.html UC Press

External links

* [http://www.desertusa.com/mag01/may/papr/sbug.html Desert USA - Stinkbugs]