# Collops tricolor > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Collops_tricolor > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Collops_tricolor.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collops_tricolor > Source revision: 1312873010 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) ***Collops tricolor***, also known as the **black-headed melyrid** or the **tri-colored soft-winged flower beetle**, is a species of [soft-winged flower beetle](/source/Soft-winged_flower_beetle) in the family [Melyridae](/source/Melyridae). It is found in North America.[1] ## Description Adults measure 3.5-4mm in length. Head, undersides, and legs are black.[2] Labrum and polished thorax are rufous while the antennae are pale rufous becoming dusky at the tips.[2] Dark bluish-green to violet elytra, with the margins sometimes rufous in the middle and the suture less often partly rufous.[2] ### Male Elytra are shiny. The basal joints of the antennae are triangular and broad, being virtually equal in width and length.[2] ### Female Elytra are duller. Further west, the female type is virtually indistinguishable from other species (e.g., *C. vicarius*) without an associating male.[2] ### Plausible polymorphism *Collops sublimbatus* was described as its own species by [Schaeffer](/source/Charles_Frederic_August_Schaeffer) in 1912 from specimens collected near the top of [Black Rock Mountain](/source/Black_Rock_Mountain_State_Park) in [Rabun County](/source/Rabun_County,_Georgia), Georgia.[3] It is virtually the same as *C. tricolor*, except that the elytral margins and suture are always entirely rufous.[2] [Fall](/source/Henry_Clinton_Fall) indicates that this "species" is a probable variety or color phase of *C. tricolor,* by the fact that some *C. tricolor* specimens have varying amounts of rufous on the margins and suture and thus "bridge the gap*"* between the two types. [3][2] Accordingly, a 1987 study done between *C. sublimbatus* and *C. georgianus* in the [southeast](/source/Southeastern_United_States) referred to *sublimbatus* as a type of the species *C. tricolor*.[4] *Nomina Insecta Nearctica* (1996) lists *C.* *sublimbatus* as a synonym of *C. tricolor.*[5] ## Similar species *C. vicarius* is indistingishable from *C. tricolor*, except that the basal triangular joint of the male's antennae is not as broad, but is 1/2 longer than wide.[2] However, [Henry Fall](/source/Henry_Clinton_Fall), who described the species in 1912 from a specimen from Indiana, noted that more study is needed to distinguish these species.[2] *C. nigriceps*, found along the coastlines of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast, from Massachusetts to Alabama, is similar to *C. tricolor*, but is distinguished by a large dark spot on the rufous thorax, a longer thorax proportionally, and the thighs sometimes being rufous.[2][1] However, the spot is often absent in the *floridanus* variety, and thus, it is more reliably separated by the male's third antennal joint.[2] *C. parvus* is superficially similar in color but smaller (3mm) and narrower towards the front since the thorax is half as wide as the elytra.[2][6] The antennae and legs are also different; it has black thighs and rufous tibiae and tarsi.[2] Moreover, it inhabits parts of the [Southwestern United States](/source/Southwestern_United_States).[2] *[C. georgianus](/source/Collops_georgianus)* can be confused with *C. sublimbatus* type, but the head and prothorax of the latter are shiny and hardly punctuate, and the head, legs, and undersides are black.[6] The antennae between these species are almost indistinguishably the same.[2] ## Distribution Locally common from Quebec to Virginia becoming scarcer to the west of this region.[2] The range of the *C. sublimbatus* type includes Alabama, North and South Carolina, and the [Appalachian Mountains](/source/Appalachian_Mountains) in Georgia, with *C. georgianus* occupying outcrops in the north central part of Georgia.[4] ## References 1. Say, Thomas (October 22, 1823). "Descriptions of Coleoptaerous Insects Collected in the late Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, performed by Order of Mr. Calhoun, Secretary of War, under Command of Major Long". *Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia*. **3**: 184–185 – via Google Books. 1. Fall, H. C. (1912). "A Review of the North American Species of Collops (Col.)". *Journal of the New York Entomological Society*. **20**. Pasadena, CA: New York Entomological Society: 249 - 274 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library. 1. Miscellaneous Notes. (1916). *Journal of the New York Entomological Society*, *24*(2), 153–154. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25003710 1. King, Patricia Smith (1987). "Macro- and Microgeographic Structure of a Spatially Subdivided Beetle Species in Nature". *Evolution*. **41** (2): 401–416. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):10.2307/2409147. [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) 2409147. [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) 28568758. 1. Poole, R. W., and P. Gentili (eds.). 1996. Nomina Insecta Nearctica: a checklist of the insects of North America. Volume 1 (Coleoptera, Strepsiptera). Entomological Information Services, Rockville, MD. 1. Schaeffer, Charles (June 1912). ["New Species of the Coleopterous Genus Collops"](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/31539). *The Canadian Entomologist*. **44** (6): 187. – via Biodiversity Heritage Library. --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Collops tricolor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collops_tricolor) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collops_tricolor?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.