About the Red Flat Bark Beetle
Cucujus clavipes is known as the flat bark beetle. It is found throughout North America. These are generally found near tree line under bark of dead poplar and ash trees. C. clavipes are described as phloem-feeding and often predators of other small insects, such as wood-boring beetles, and mites. These are usually seen during spring-summer seasons. Having a cold habitat, these beetles must go through several physiological mechanisms to survive; they are recognised for their ability to change their overwintering mechanisms.
C. clavipes can be found in North America [1] over a broad latitudinal range from North Carolina (latitude ~35°N) to the Brooks Range in Alaska (latitude, ~67°30 N) and has also been reported in Alberta [2] and in Ontario, Canada. C. clavipes has two subspecies, C. clavipes clavipes, which resides in the Eastern portion of the North America and C. clavipes puniceus in the West. These are poikilothermic organisms.
The beetles are between 10 and 14 mm in length,. Their body tends to be strongly dorsoventrally flattened and their sides parallel. Their abdomen has 5 visible ventral segments. These have strongly forked median... Wikipedia →