Attalini
Guides
Collops tricolor
black-headed melyrid, tri-colored soft-winged flower beetle
Collops tricolor is a small soft-winged flower beetle (family Melyridae) measuring 3.5–4 mm in length. Adults exhibit striking tricoloration: black head, undersides, and legs; rufous labrum and polished thorax; and dark bluish-green to violet elytra with variable rufous margins. The species is locally common in eastern North America from Quebec to Virginia, becoming scarcer westward. Males are distinguished from females by shiny elytra and distinctive triangular basal antennal joints that are as broad as long.