Tree-top Jewel Beetle
Profile
Adelaide Hills
Tree-top Jewel Beetle
Ventral
 
                      
Tree-top Jewel Beetle (Castiarina alternozona)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Beetles (Coleoptera)
Family: Jewel Beetle (Buprestidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Tree-top Jewel Beetle (Castiarina alternozona)
This Photo:     🔍Anterior🔎

Thank you Mark Hura for identifying this species for us

General Species Information:
Found in the Adelaide Hills and possibly elsewhere
~20mm long. Has a golden lustre to the pronotum. Blue sheen under, and the obvious red on black stripes above.
This is one specimen, found dead back in Jan 2010. However, rephotographed it this year to publish on here. However, it's become very dirty over those 10 years; so have used the best of both photo sets.
Peter Lang on his web site says "This is a seldom-encountered species endemic to SA and largely confined to the higher rainfall areas with Stringybark forests in the southern Mt Lofty Ranges, and to southern Kangaroo Island. The scarcity of specimens may be due in part to it feeding out of reach in tree canopies."
Mark said "A Buprestid that is extremely rarely encountered! An awesome find and a great specimen too!"

Copyright © 2020-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 02-Apr-2020
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.