Tree-top Jewel Beetle
Profile
Tree-top Jewel Beetle
Ventral
| Tree-top Jewel Beetle Profile | | Tree-top Jewel Beetle Ventral | | ||
 | 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!" | |||||
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