Metallic Jewel Beetle
Pronotum Punctuations
Giant Jewel Beetle
S1, Male, dorsal
| Metallic Jewel Beetle Pronotum Punctuations | | Giant Jewel Beetle S1, Male, dorsal | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Beetles (Coleoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Jewel Beetle (Buprestidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Metallic Jewel Beetle (Melobasis soror ssp soror) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍Metallic Blue Body🔎 | ||||
Thank you Dr Peter Lang for identifying, Mark Hura, Stephan Gottwald & Joel DuBois for confirming and Allen Sundholm OAM for helping with the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere ~12 to 14mm long. They quickly dropped off the bush onto the ground when felt threatened. Seems to have a metallic blue body. We thought this was Melobasis propinqua but Allen indicated that there are several similar species requiring microscopic examination to separate to species. He also said "Melobasis propinqua does not have the distinct costae on the elytra, is more rounded generally, and is much more hirsute ventrally". Stephan said "I think nervosa species-group". Peter said "I think that this is the species that I treat as Melobasis sp. Senna on my website": Buprestidae of South Australia As you can see, this Stephan's comment that it belongs in the nervosa species-group. We Found 4 in two Senna artemisioides bushes during the day in Sept. | |||||
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