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Jewel beetle
Castiarina octomaculata
-37.9503, 145.254
Field Notes
Description:
Beautiful little beetles which love to bury themselves into leptospermum flowers after they open. The size and colour resembles a (slightly elongated) ladybird. A second one seemed to have gold thorax and head (pic6). About 18mm long.
Habitat:
On Leptospermum continentale? in a local national park.
Notes:
Ladybird mimic Jewel beetle (♀)?. These flowers are fairly short lived and therefore so is the appearance of these beetles. It was very satisfying to plan a day trip with them high on the list and then actually find them. <br> Although this plant species seemed to be prolific and flowering over a large area (1000m x 1000m?) these beetles were only found on the flowers in a tiny patch about (50m x 50m?) <br>
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/Castiarina+octomaculata# <br>
family: BUPRESTIDAE <br>
subfamily: Buprestinae <br>
tribe: Stigmoderini <br>
subtribe: Stigmoderina <br>
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