The mysterious beetle larva
I must admit that sometimes I really wish I had chosen birds over insects. 
Sure, birds can be more difficult to find - or at least more difficult to find a great variety of them. However, consider this. There are somewhere between 9,800 to 10,050 known species of birds in the world. According to some lazy research, there are approximately 320 species of birds that frequent Washington State. I suspect in the area around Puget Sound, the number is smaller. Sure, species identification can be difficult at times. However a trained specialist given a good look at the bird and the sounds the bird makes can make a reasonable guess at the species of the bird. Even the most difficult sightings can be whittled down to a handful of possible species. Also, it is highly unlikely that I will come across a species of bird here in Washington State that has not been extensively studied already.
Contrast this to identifying anthropods. I’m not exactly sure how many anthropod species have been identified. However, there are currently 900,000 known species of insects, which are a subset of anthropods. Just in Washington State, over 700 species of spiders have been identified. Even today new species are occasionally found here. Therefore, it can be very tricky identifying whatever I find. This specimen currently perplexes me.
I took this picture by the ponds near my office. Several days before I took some other shots of it.
When I blogged about it, Myrmecos mentioned that it might be the larva of a rove beetle. Based on some research on the web, I think this is the closest match. Here’s the closest shot I could find. Notice that the double tails are very similar - with very similar spikes. While this larva is obviously not the same one in the picture, it appears that his is some type of rove beetle larva. Perhaps this species only exists in this part of the country and therefore there is little literature on it.
I hope in the near future to make contact with some local entomologists who may have a better idea, but for now I am happy that I have a general idea what this may be.
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Tags: beetle, identification, larva, macro, photography, rove beetle