Armored night-walker

Nyctoporis carinata · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Tenebrionidae

Also called: flightless darkling beetle

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Armored night-walker
Photo: Carlos A. Armenta, CC BY-SA

Adults measure about 12 to 16 mm long. They are black with many indentations, bumps and ridges, and have golden hairs on their feet.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

They are black with indentations, bumps and ridges, and golden hairs are attached to their tarsi.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Adults reach 12 to 16 mm in length.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

They live in leaf litter and rocky debris.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 3 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California, Arizona, Nevada.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Armored night-walker photo 2
Photo: Trevor Van Loon, CC BY
Armored night-walker photo 3
Photo: Pat Farris, CC BY
Armored night-walker photo 4
Photo: Bennett Grappone, CC BY
Armored night-walker photo 5
Photo: Bennett Grappone, CC BY

Same family (Tenebrionidae)

Red Flour BeetleRed Flour BeetleTribolium castaneumCan damage your homeConfused Flour BeetleConfused Flour BeetleTribolium confusumCan damage your homeRough-haired Lagria BeetleRough-haired Lagria BeetleLagria hirtaObscure Darkling BeetleObscure Darkling BeetleEleodes obscuraYellow Mealworm BeetleYellow Mealworm BeetleTenebrio molitorCan damage your homeSulphur BeetleSulphur BeetleCteniopus sulphureus

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctoporis_carinata

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-24.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.