Red-corn Flower Beetle
Male, ventral
Adelaide Unicorn Beetle
S2, Female, dorsal
Animals
Plants
Info
| Red-corn Flower Beetle Male, ventral | | Adelaide Unicorn Beetle S2, Female, dorsal | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | ||||||||||||
| Order: | Beetles (Coleoptera) | |||||||||||||
| Family: | Scarab Beetle (Scarabaeidae) iNaturalist Observation | |||||||||||||
| Species: | Adelaide Unicorn Beetle (Novapus adelaidae)| This Photo: | 🔍S1, Male, dorsal🔎 | Thank you Mark Hura (Rhytiphora) for identifying this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere 1st Live Photo on-line: ~17 to ~21mm long. We spent hours trying to id it via photographs and thought it was Novapus crassus, a very similar species. Mark said "It exhibits all the features of this species - pygidium setose on base and apical ridge; mentum setose on disc; deep, abrupt pronotal excavation with shallow vermiform punctures on the disc; large bifurcate cephalic horn; subobsolete upper carina on hind tibia as well as a number of other features." In 1887 Rev. T. Blackburn states of this species (which he described) "I have seen a good many specimens taken in the Adelaide district". It's a pity they are so rare today. The females don't have the horn, nor the depression. It's very difficult to id the females. It is possible the other females we've found are a different species, but Mark confirmed our S2 female. Since we've only found N. adelaidae males, we'll leave all the female photo's stored under this species (which then show up in the counts & diaries).
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