Ischyrus dunedinensis

I.dunedinensis adults are smallish by standards of its family, about 0.2-0.3 in (5.15-7.35 mm) long and 0.095-0.13 in (2.4-3.25 mm) wide. Their elytra have roughly parallel sides for most of their basal half; overall, the body has an elongated egg-shape when seen from above, slightly more blunt in front, widest at the well-rounded "shoulders", and with almost parallel sides. From the side, they are rather low-slung and have a smoothly curving profile. Their exoskeleton is covered in a microscopic reticulated relief that gives them a silky sheen that under a microscope looks like the crinkled pattern of leather or human skin. The adults' dark-and-light color pattern is composed of patches of black and pale orange. The underside and head are dark, except for an elongated orange spot between each compound eye and the top of the head, which neither touch each other or the epistome; in some individuals the spots are brownish and less distinct. The legs and palps are reddish-brown, while the antennae is brown, with the "club" at the tip black, never pale as it in some related genera. …

Very little is known about the habitat and habits of this beetle, which for almost 70 years was only known from the holotype, an adult of undetermined sex, specimen 92 in the Blatchley collection at Purdue University. It was found on May 2, 1916, at Dunedin on the central Gulf of Mexico coast of the Florida Peninsula. A review of Ischyrus specimens in 1986 located dozens of additional specimens in museum and private collections; they had been collected at least since the 1950s but remained unstudied and unidentified until the review. Most notable is the record from Georgia, where one I.dunedinensis was attracted to a light at Camp Cornelia of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in the night of June 13/14, 1981, by researchers C.L.Smith and S.N.Brown; this specimen is now in the University of Georgia arthropod collection. In Florida, specimens have been reported from most parts of the state, but it might be rare or absent in the Everglades. Most records are from May to July; at the Archbold Biological Station in south-central Florida they were collected up to September however. Their large-faceted eyes also suggest that they are nocturnal animals, and adults are indeed occasionally attracted to UV- and other light traps at night, and have been found in small numbers in suction traps at dusk or dawn. …