Little Sardinian Beetle
S1, ventral
Adelaide Hills
Honey Brown Beetle
S2, Female, dorsal
 
                      
Honey Brown Beetle (Ecnolagria rufescens)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Beetles (Coleoptera)
Family: Darkling Beetle (Tenebrionidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Honey Brown Beetle (Ecnolagria rufescens)
This Photo:     S1, Male, dorsal

Thank you Boris Büche & Dianne Clarke for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found in the Adelaide Hills and possibly elsewhere
Male & female ~13mm long. To separate species within the genus the male is needed. These can be recognised by the long thick antennae bases as seen here.
In SA we have two very similar species, E. grandis & E. rufescens. To separate them you need to see the antennae segments. The middle & rear leg spines also help. E. rufescens has longer middle leg spines but a slightly smaller rear leg spine than E. grandis.
With E. grandis the middle antennal segments also have slight spuring (similar to the 2nd to last two, but not as exaggerated). With E. rufescens the middle antennal segments are relatively symetrical ... round, not spurred.
We cannot confirm the females shown here are E. rufescens, but given the one male we found is, and they were found in close proximity it's reasonable to assume they are.

Copyright © 2011-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 27-Nov-2011
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.