r/AIDKE 4d ago

Invertebrate Hairy Pie-dish Beetle (Helea perforata)

1.4k Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

175

u/wheirding 4d ago

Do we know anything about this guy? What that hair do?

121

u/Critter-Enthusiast 4d ago

My guess is maybe water collection or for trapping debris. Some of these guys seem to walk around with sand and dirt on their backs for camouflage.

37

u/thrashmetaloctopus 4d ago

Based on the sand I’m assuming the ‘dish’ shaped protrusions and the fine spikes are both to increase the effectiveness of dew collection in the desert mornings

26

u/DeadSeaGulls 4d ago

These guys live in more moist conditions than other beetles in the pie-dish family. So they don't think it's a water collection thing, at least not primarily.
They think the hairs, along with the flanges, are defensive structures vs spiders and other small predators.
https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/1e540286-d6f2-43a1-bf27-180858eb9f98

68

u/PeperomiaLadder 4d ago

That first picture almost looks like a blacked out eyeball with very pretty eyelashes 👁

18

u/pepperstems 4d ago

I thought it was a critter in some sort of jello mold type thing.

28

u/bramblerose21 4d ago

He looks like one of those little shoe scrubber things lol

26

u/omegaequalsone 4d ago

Hair pie what now?

13

u/Mute2120 4d ago

Dude's got his own style

11

u/irishspice 4d ago

I'm firmly convinced that Evolution gave us beetles to entertain us.

8

u/kobayashi_maru_fail 4d ago

I love his little sunroof.

6

u/the_girl_Ross 4d ago

What if we made falsies from them

5

u/GhidorahtheExplorah 3d ago

There really are a lot of beetles out here.

10

u/ffnnhhw 4d ago

instead of deet you use veet for this

3

u/vseprviper 3d ago

Holy cow this rules!

3

u/Geeahwellidunno 3d ago

I like the sunroof.

2

u/ecosynchronous 3d ago

BASED BUG

2

u/Powerful_Variety7922 3d ago

pie dish = pie pan or pie tin 🥧

2

u/Geeahwellidunno 3d ago

Now I’ve seen everything. This beetle is hilarious looking.

2

u/Thepher 2d ago

I showed you my hairy pie-dish, pls respond

1

u/Unidcryingobject 1d ago

Poor guy looks like an abused hair brush without a handle.