Jewel Beetle from Australia

bugman

January 17th, 2011 at 8:33 pm

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Cool Bug!
Location: Perth, Western Australia
January 16, 2011 11:20 pm
Hi!
I found this really cool bug on my driveway and would love to know what it is. He looked a bit sad, and in risk of being driven over, so I transported him to my garden so hopefully he’s doing OK.
I’ve uploaded his picture to my Flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessmanea/5353975946/
Good luck!
Signature: Jess Manea

Jewel Beetle

Hi Jess,
You rescued a Metallic Borer Beetle in the family Buprestidae. Because of their often beautiful coloration and metallic markings they are called Jewel Beetles and they are highly prized by collectors. We believe your individual is in the genus Castiarina and of the numerous individuals pictured on the Coleoptera Buprestidae of Australia webpage, it most resembles Castiarina castelnaudi, though many other species are also quite similar. We verified that by comparing your image to a specimen of Castiarina castelnaudi on the Entomology section of the Agriculture of Western Australia website.

Thank you Daniel!
What a beautiful set of creatures these are, I’ve just wasted about two hours at work looking up jewel beetles now… haha.
I feel very lucky to have met him, and I do hope he’s doing OK
Thanks again,
Jess

Education is never a waste Jess.

Hi Daniel,
Thanks again for helping me identify the bug! The world is such a cool place now days where you don’t have wonder about things forever anymore.
I posted about it on my blog if you’re interested:
http://jessmanea.blogspot.com/2011/01/whats-that-bug.html
It was nice to meet you, good luck with your endeavors
Jess

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Comments 2

Allen wrote:
Hi Jess & Bugman!
The species in this pic is a female of Temognatha conspicillata, which is one of the larger species of Buprestidae endemic to the south-west of Western Australia.
The Perth record is of interest as there are relatively few records of this species from around Perth compared to records of this species from further inland in WA.
Cheers!
Allen Sundholm
Posted 17 Jun 2011 at 6:20 pm ¶
bugman wrote:
Hi again Allen,
We are thrilled that you have some time to devote to identifications of some of our Australian Buprestids.
Posted 17 Jun 2011 at 7:12 pm ¶