Diet

• Adults: Primarily feed on nectar, pollen and plant juices, and are commonly found on flowers and foliage.

• Larvae: Predatory, feeding on small insects, insect larvae and other soft-bodied invertebrates in leaf litter, soil, decaying wood and beneath bark.

• Adults generally cause little damage to living vegetation.

Range

• Plateros is a very diverse genus of net-winged beetles (Lycidae) found throughout the Americas, with especially high diversity in tropical and subtropical regions.

• Plateros beetles occur around Zihuatanejo, where the tropical dry-forest environment supports suitable habitat.

• Around Zihuatanejo, they are occasional to fairly common, particularly during the rainy season, when adults become active on flowering vegetation.

Habitat

• Found in tropical dry forest, tropical deciduous forest, woodland, scrub, forest edges, gardens and secondary vegetation.

• Adults are most easily found on flowers, foliage and grasses, particularly in sunny clearings.

• They may also appear on vegetation around outdoor lights at night.

• Larvae develop in leaf litter, decaying wood and soil, where they hunt small invertebrates.

Size

• Adult length: approximately 5–15 mm (0.2–0.6 in), depending on species.

• Body elongated and somewhat flattened.

• The elytra have raised veins and expanded areas between them, producing the characteristic net-like texture of Lycidae.

• Colouration is commonly red, orange, yellow, brown or black, often in contrasting combinations.