!!!The Diabolical Ironclad Beetle!!!

Diabolical ironclad beetle

Family: Zopheridae

Genius: Phloeodes

Species: Phloeodes diabolicus

Larva: Inhabits the dead woods of trees like pecan and oak (staff 2021 Mar).

Pupa: Occurs in the deadwood (staff 2021 Mar).

Egg: The female lays eggs around the bark. Overall not much is known about the beetle.

It is native to the California Floristic Province in the states of California and Baja California. They live in desert regions and woodland areas. They eat fungi that grow in the bark of trees.

The beetle goes from being an egg laid around bark to a larva. Not much research has been done to identify the larva, then inside the deadwood, it turns into a pupa that will protect the beetle until the beetle is formed. The diabolical ironclad beetle lives about 8 years in the wild (Dhir 2023 Sep 4).

The Diabolical ironclad beetle is flat-bodied and is unable to fly. They are only an inch long in size. When two flat-bodied beetles mate they make a glue-like substance that holds both together. They have improved defense against predators from a hard shell that can absorb up to 39,000 times its body weight.

It has a jigsaw puzzle-like structure that helps connect the various parts of the exoskeleton to make the impressive shell. This impressive shell can be ran over by a car and the beetle will be unscathed. To put it in a case, researchers can’t simply put a pin in it, they have to first drill a hole into the beetle to capture it. Layers of the shell can crack and separate without compromising the integrity of the entire shell (Magazine and Machemer). The layers are connected much like a zipper and wrap around the vital organs to provide the most crucial protection. In the same way that people wear bulletproof vests, except the beetle can withstand being crushed because of the amazing exoskeleton.