Thinopinus pictus
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The pictured rove beetle (Thinopinus pictus) is a wingless rove beetle which lives on the sandy beaches of the West Coast of the United States from southern Alaska to Baja California. It is nocturnal, emerging at night from temporary sand burrows to feed on beach hoppers (Orchestoidea). It is the only species in the genus Thinopinus.
Like other rove beetles, T. pictus has shortened elytra, so that most of its abdomen is exposed. Males average 17 millimetres (0.67 in), females average 18 mm (0.71 in). Males possess a cleft in the last abdominal sternite, which makes them readily discernible from females. Their cryptic coloration varies geographically in response to lighter colored sand in the southern part of their range. Populations north of central California tend to be darker in response to the dark volcanic sand, while those in the southern range are quite pale. Because of this variation, T. pictus was once thought to be made up of two subspecies.
Thinopinus pictus inhabits the sandy intertidal zone; during the day, they hide in temporary sand burrows or under kelp and beach debris with a preference to inhabit the wettest and softest sand available... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 2 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Pictured Rove Beetle sighting in San Diego on a given day, based on 20 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 393rd most-seen of the 693 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Pictured Rove Beetle in San Diego on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pictured Rove Beetle sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only San Diego, in our data
San Diego is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Pictured Rove Beetle sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Coleoptera
The closest relatives of the Pictured Rove Beetle that you can see in San Diego (order Coleoptera, Beetles) are Figeater Beetle (about 20%), Asian Lady Beetle (about 10%) and Spotless Lady Beetle (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pictured Rove Beetle is recorded against all the insects logged in San Diego (20 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
