Unidentified Christmas beetle at Tura Beach, NSW
Identification history
| Anoplognathus sp. (genus) | 4 Oct 2024 | HaukeKoch | ||
| Anoplognathus porosus | 20 Sep 2024 | MichaelMulvaney | ||
| Anoplognathus porosus | 3 Jan 2017 | KimPullen | ||
| CHRYSOMELIDAE (family) | 1 Jan 2017 | Panboola |
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User's notes
Not sure of species
6 comments
JackieMiles
wrote:
2 Jan 2017
This is a Christmas beetle, not a leaf beetle (much smaller critters), but it's not possible to ID it further than Anoplognathus sp, without getting a look at its backside, as to colour and hairiness!
JackieMiles
wrote:
3 Jan 2017
Hi Kim, so what are you basing that ID on? Pale colour of wing cases? (I used to sort Xmas beetles from the light trap on Brown Mtn as a uni holiday job, way back when, but I've forgotten most of the ID features now).
KimPullen
wrote:
7 Jan 2017
Hi Jackie, I went for A. porosus based on the pale wing cases with a longitudinal pattern, the colour of the pronotum, and the slight bulge in the sides of the elytra around the mid-point. But I'd like to check the ID against reliably identified specimens, as A. porosus is quite variable and there may be other spp. on the coast that I'm not familiar with.
JackieMiles
wrote:
7 Jan 2017
Yep, I've never investigated what's around by way of Anoplognathus down here. Our only photos so far are viriditarsus and hirsutus, but I seem to recall there being at least 8 to choose from in Canberra. There's plenty of evidence of their activity down here this year, but I don't seem to run across many actual beetles. I'll start paying a bit more attention.
HaukeKoch
wrote:
3 Jan 2024
It's very broad, from that and the colouration I would suspect A. olivieri. That species still seems quite common, including around urban areas, along the Australian East Coast in our Christmas Beetle project. Best would be to have a view of the pygidium, which is drawn out and pointy with an apical tuft of setae.
HaukeKoch
wrote:
4 Oct 2024
I've set it back to Anoplognathus sp. as I think it's more likely a female A. olivieri. Ideally, a view of the pygidium is best to distinguish between the two (and A. pallidicollis, which can also look similar). The male clypeus is also much broader in shovel-like in A. olivieri. For comparison, here are some images of A. olivieri and A. porosus from the area (A. porosus is quite variable in terms of the colouration and patterning on the elytra across it's range):
A. olivieri:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=-36.50875819474151&nelng=150.47078690777164&swlat=-37.482709761110456&swlng=149.67427811870914&taxon_id=519430
A. porosus:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=-35.235754037276045&nelng=150.75643143902164&swlat=-37.482709761110456&swlng=149.54244218120914&taxon_id=201879
A. olivieri:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=-36.50875819474151&nelng=150.47078690777164&swlat=-37.482709761110456&swlng=149.67427811870914&taxon_id=519430
A. porosus:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=-35.235754037276045&nelng=150.75643143902164&swlat=-37.482709761110456&swlng=149.54244218120914&taxon_id=201879
Location information
- Coordinates 149.928000-36.848230
- Altitude 37.2m
- Places Tura Beach, NSW
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- 1 Jan 2017 08:03 AM Recorded on
- Panboola Recorded by
-
Collections
Insects Scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae) Beetles (Coleoptera) Panboola
Species information
- Anoplognathus sp. (genus) Scientific name
- Unidentified Christmas beetle Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1277.7m Recorded at altitude
- Machine learning
- External link More information
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
