CLOSED: ID Please: beetle with half circle head, Net-Winged Beetle?

I guess what I've been calling a head is more like a neck? What's that part called anyway? Not a thorax? Maybe pronotum or mesostemum? Is there a common word for it?

Anyway this one has a half circle there. This one was found on my Cucumis melo 'Golden Sweet' vine, which, for some reason, gets very few insects on it.

I was trying to figure it out myself but I'm stuck about this far:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Infraorder: Elateriformia
Superfamily: Elateroidea
AND maybe:
Family: Lycidae (Net-Winged Beetle)

Can someone help me figure out what species? Of course any of the above could be wrong.

It almost looks like a Plateros (http://bugguide.net/node/view/25895) but it's head is much more red and I'm in south western US, very far from the north eastern area it's usually found in.

It's a lightning bug or firefly (really a beetle). Out west there are these diurnal fireflies, maybe others, too:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/4867

Between the head and body is called the pronotum

Oop, sorry, I didn't read your post carefully enough, I'll keep looking!!

edit: I thought fireflies were in the Family you mentioned, but I guess not

This message was edited Aug 20, 2007 9:24 PM

Wow. It's a good thing you didn't read my post in entirety. It certainly looks like a firefly! Compare to this one: http://bugguide.net/node/view/51407

We're so hot and dry, and it's another north eastern beetle. Could one of those be around here?

The biggest difference I see is in the pronotum. One has thin red markings in line like stripes, while the other has much fuller markings. I don't see any with Ellychnia with such full red marks. I suppose there is always genetic variance, but it seems like this one might be something else?

Maybe gender differences too? I don't know. I googled 'Ellychnia Arizona' and found records for E. corrusca and E. californica in AZ, there may be more. Read further down the page on that link I posted, it says they're everywhere in N. America but the Northwest, and even there some records exist.

The male and female of Ellychnia have identical markings:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/14986

I found a picture of Ellychnia californica and it's a very close match:
http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/hotaru-net/jpeg/hotaru/Ellychnia_californica.jpg

I also came across some photos of Pyropyga and it's a close match too:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/21218
http://bugguide.net/node/view/126102

It's actually almost a perfect match to Pyropyga sp.:
http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/hotaru-net/jpeg/hotaru/Pyropyga_sp3.jpg http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/hotaru-net/jpeg/hotaru/Pyropyga_sp4.jpg

I can't find out anything about Pyropyga though. I do see the range for Ellychnia (http://bugguide.net/node/view/4867#range) and that certainly includes me.

Well, since neither are a perfect match, perhaps it's an Ellychnia arizonica. =)