Inflated Beetle

Cysteodemus armatus · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Meloidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Inflated Beetle
Photo: Adam J. Searcy, CC BY

The inflated beetle is black with many white spots. Its wing covers are mostly smooth and puffed up, almost covering part of the thorax. It lives in both Central America and North America.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

It is black and densely spotted with white. The wing covers are mostly smooth and inflated, nearly covering part of the thorax.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

It occurs in Central America and North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 5 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Utah.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Inflated Beetle photo 3
Photo: Chris Brown, CC BY
Inflated Beetle photo 4
Photo: Ken-ichi Ueda, CC BY
Inflated Beetle photo 5
Photo: Hydrocycler (Elizabeth Dougherty), CC BY
Inflated Beetle photo 6
Photo: Cricket Raspet, CC BY

Same family (Meloidae)

Black Blister BeetleBlack Blister BeetleEpicauta pensylvanicaCan irritate skinBlack Oil BeetleBlack Oil BeetleMeloe proscarabaeusViolet Oil BeetleViolet Oil BeetleMeloe violaceusMylabris variabilisMylabris variabilisMylabris variabilisBrassy Blister BeetleBrassy Blister BeetleLytta aeneaEpicauta hirticornisEpicauta hirticornisEpicauta hirticornisCan irritate skin

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysteodemus_armatus

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.