I discovered these tiny beetles when I was uprooting some weeds from a very large terracotta pot that houses a bougainvillaea. They were deep under the soil. The photos are not good because they are no more than 4-5mms long and fast enough to win the Kentucky Derby!
Any ideas?
Pic 2
The black ones
I found about 20 of the black ones and two of the orange/tan ones.
These could be in the family Tenebrionidae, or at least the superfamily that includes tenebrionids. Check the number of segments in the tarsi; tenebrionids have a 5-5-4 tarsal formula - that is, there are five segments in the fore and mid tarsi but only four segments in the hind tarsi. The light colored beetles could be teneral specimens whose cuticle has not completely hardened.
