Recent discoveries for two lizard beetles

Dr. Michael Skvarla and his co-authors recently confirmed the identification of a lizard beetle, Languria mozardi, which had been reared from soybeans in Pennsylvania. This identification greatly expands the previously known range of L. mozardi as pests of soybeans and suggests that they can colonize soybeans throughout North America wherever they encounter commercial soybean crops.

In this same publication, the authors recorded the first confirmed plant host for a different, but closely related species of lizard beetle, L. angustata, which was discovered inside the stem of a blue cardinal flower plant.

The Coleopterists Bulletin, 77(1):28-31 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1649/0010-065X-77.1.28