Clown Beetle
S4, Wing Edges
Clown Beetle
S1, Ventral
| Clown Beetle S4, Wing Edges | | Clown Beetle S1, Ventral | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Beetles (Coleoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Clown Beetle (Histeridae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Clown Beetle (Saprinus laetus) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍S6, Posterior🔎 | ||||
Thank you Boris Büche for identifying and Mark Hura for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere Quite small @ 4.5 to 7mm, with large mandibles, for it's size, and wide legs clearly used for digging. Very metallic blue/green back/elytra and metallic yellow/gold shield/pronotum. Club like antennae. Notice the body is covered in scores & pits almost sculptured; these are the same on all speciemens so conclude they are not damage marks. The dirt on specimen four (S4) highlights the edge of the elytra quite well. The scores mentioned above are diagnostic and referred to as streaks or stria. Here there are 4 with the 1st (inner) being short, with the other 3 being longer. Go to the iNat link to see a link to a more detailed description. Boris id'ed our S6, we consider the other specimens we've photographed to be the same (even with the large size differences). | |||||
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