I will need to see the actual specimen in my hand to determine if this is in either Diphucrania, or Hypocisseis, or something else. Cheers, Allen M. Sundholm.
I don’t think the pattern conforms with Hyposisseis so I suspect it’s in the genus Diphucrania. This isn’t a species I have seen before and it may be undescribed. It would be worth trying to collect the specimen and donate it to the Australian National Insect Collection
Yes, most likely Diphucrania, and absolutely agree that a series of specimens, both sexes would be good to be collected and donated to the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC).
Thanks to the moderators for the various comments. In terms of collecting a series at Dryandra Street Woodland: this Spring/Summer I have been carefully surveying the accessible leaves of Acacia spp (as well as other veg) with a view to adding species to the Dryandra Street Woodland set. In that time the CBN field guide species count has gone from around 520 to around 700. I estimate that I would have seen many, many thousands of individuals of various insect-sized species. (I don't lift bark or disturb fallen debris). This beetle (and possibly one other) is the only one of its kind that I have seen in that time.
My only problem with this is if there is only one (or two) speciemens in this area, if collected, does this negate any chance of furture breeding in this area?
Hi AlisonMilton, IMO collecting a series of say half a dozen males and females will not have any detrimental affect on the survival of this species. I have had over 50 years experience chasing aussie Buprestidae. By far the biggest threats are land clearing, logging of native forests, and deliberately burning the bush in so-called hazard reduction burns, which in fact actually increase the bushfire hazard due to wiping out understorey invertebrates which would have munched down to mulch the forest food (wrongly called 'fuel load'). Cheers Allen M. Sundholm.
Armed with a container, I went back to the original wattle and examined it minutely. I extended the search to all adjacent wattles. I could find no individuals of this species. On the plus side, I believe I may have found another beetle sp, spider sp and moth sp to add the Dryandra Street Woodland list.
Hi ConBoekel, at least you tried. Well, its possible that you saw the last of their emerged, and most had already emerged, mated, and are long gone. Or, it was a blow-in, though less likely. Or it was a poor season for them this season. Who knows. All the best, Allen.
Describe how you intend to use these images and/or audio files and your request will be sent to the author for consideration.
Your request has been successfully submitted to the author for consideration.
2,157,958 sightings of 19,993 species in 6,539 locations from 11,657 contributors
CCA 3.0 | privacy
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land and acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.