Behavioral notes on Diaperis/Nyctoporis

 

I saw a Diaperis rufipes specimen last night (pictured above) and again in the early morning today. While photoing the night specimen it began chewing on my hand; evidently my suspicion that D. rufipes dislikes eating all nonfungal material has been falsified.

I have also found that my captive Nyctoporis carinata specimen becomes increasingly likely to reject handfed food and flinch/recoil from fingers when it is well fed, even when it is still hungry enough to eat non-handfed food. This supports my hypothesis that feeding placation is actually calculated risk-taking, and that the mortality risks of being easily visible to sharp-eyed vertebrates may actually be quite low for some counterintuitive reason; after all I have also repeatedly seen Cotinis and Calosoma become reluctant to hand-feed when well fed but still hungry.

Also, my carinata specimen is prone to sleeping out in the open, not under a shelter like most tenebrionids. I assume that its lumpy dull-colored self allows it to be camouflaged against dirt and reduces the need to hide.