mpmoskwik's Identifications

0.2 second long flashes 6.4 seconds apart at 76° and 80% humidity. Before catching it this individual was flashing about seven feet off the ground, others were as low as about three feet and some as high as about twelve feet. At the edge of shrubland where it meets a dirt road and mature pine forest with dense understory. Note narrow body, dark squared off pygidium, mostly dark abdomen including sides of lantern segments, pale tipped scutellum, pronotal pattern, and brownish elytra. Measures 11mm.

I don’t know what this could be… Small, 2.5 inch individual, but clearly a gravid female. My initial thought was Black Mountain, which is a bit outta range, and then I looked at the underside… the belly appears to be blackish, with no pattern, but the eggs pushing on the skin seems to make the skin look lighter… Plain black belly should rule out Northern, Black Mountain, and Blue Ridge Dusky. The size and pattern rules out Black-bellied, as I have seen larval Black-bellies larger than this one, and it was right small to be a Seal, and it really doesn’t look Sealy to me… it doesn’t seem like a Shovelnose, and it was under a long along a dried muddy creek, which I wouldn’t expect a Shovelnose to tolerate. So, am I missing something?