Diet

• Adults: Information on adult feeding is limited. They are associated with woody plants and flowers, and adults may feed on plant material or floral resources.

• Larvae: The immature stages of Cissites are poorly documented. Like other members of the blister beetle family (Meloidae), they have a complex life cycle, and the larval stages are thought to be associated with other insects or their nests rather than simply feeding on vegetation.

• Cissites belongs to the subfamily Nemognathinae, whose larvae often have highly specialized relationships with bees and other insects.

Range

• Cissites auriculata is distributed through Mexico and Central America, with records from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Mexican records include Guerrero, Colima, Jalisco, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Sinaloa, Veracruz, and Chiapas.

• It is therefore a species that can occur in the broader Zihuatanejo/Guerrero fauna.

Habitat

• Associated with tropical dry forests, tropical deciduous forests, woodland edges, secondary vegetation, and other warm forest habitats.

• Adults are particularly associated with woody vegetation and forested environments.

• Field observations are relatively uncommon; historical specimens were often collected from wooden structures or vegetation.

Size

• A large, robust blister beetle, considerably larger and more heavily built than many familiar Meloidae.

• Adults have a characteristic buprestoid (jewel-beetle-like) body shape, broad head and pronotum, and orange-red elytra marked with irregular black spots.