Adults are approximately 15–25 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Pimelia costata
A flightless ground beetle that swallows the fruits of a parasitic plant and defecates living seeds into new territory.
About this species
Pimelia costataWaltl, 1835
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Pimelia costata is an Iberian darkling beetle with strongly ribbed wing cases. It walks through Mediterranean scrub and is a major disperser of the minute seeds of the root parasite Cytinus hypocistis.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Tenebrionidae · Pimelia
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Portugal and SpainBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Portugal and Spain
Dry Mediterranean scrub, sandy soil and rockrose communities.
Ground-active, especially in mild conditions.
Fallen fruit, soft plant material, detritus and other organic matter.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Field populations consumed as much as 17.5 per cent of the available Cytinus fruit — an unexpectedly large share of a plant’s reproductive output for a single beetle species.
Up to 31 intact seeds were recovered from one beetle dropping, and gut passage did not destroy their viability, so the animal functions as a miniature vertebrate-style fruit disperser.
Its fused, deeply costate wing cases prevent flight but form a rigid shell; dispersal happens step by step across the ground, carrying the plant’s seeds with it.