Found only on tidal flats. Cone robust, its lower surface largely black. Side of pronotum with an almost right-angle notch at rear. Length 41-54 mm in New Jersey, 51-65 mm in Florida.
Similar species:
N. lyristes has a more slender cone and is not on tidal flats. N. nebrascensis has the side of the pronotum with an obtuse notch at the rear and is not on tidal flats. N. ensiger has the black concentrated at edges of ventral surface of cone and is not on tidal flats.
Habitat:
Atlantic and Gulf tidal flats dominated by grasses (Spartina sp., Distichlis sp.) or black reeds (Juncus sp.).
Season:
July–September.
Remarks:
The distribution in Florida is disjunct because mangroves occupy what would otherwise be tidal flats in south Florida.
Individuals from Florida are conspicuously larger than those from New Jersey and occur principally in the black-reed marshes (Juncus romerianus) rather than in the adjacent salt meadow-grass marshes (Spartina alterniflora). In New Jersey black-reed marshes do not occur and the black-nosed conehead is abundant in salt meadow-grass marshes.
