What is it???
Location: Valley Of The Winds, Northern Territory, Australia
February 21, 2011 4:47 pm
I saw this beastie whilst walking around the Olgas,Uluru National Park, NT, Australia a couple of weeks ago and can’t identify it. Hope you can help!!
Didn’t see anymore but it was approximately six centimetres in length and two centimetres wide.
Many thanks!!
Signature: ??
Dear ??,
While we have been successful in quickly identifying your gorgeous Longicorn Beetle, we are unfortunately unable to assist with your own identity. We found your Longicorn’s identity on a website of vintage Shell Picture Cards of Beetles. It is identified as the White Spotted Beetle, Penthea saundersi, on Shell Picture Card 318. The Shell Picture Card website indicates: “Card data: ‘This large and truly magnificent black beetle, with its ornamentation of whitish spots, is a native of Western Australia. It is a Longicorn belonging to the Cerambycidae family. Calodema Supplementary Paper No. 46 (2007) Adult beetles of this species are usually found crawling about on twigs or small branches of trees in the daytime. The larvae, or grubs, are borers. ‘ Comments: Nothing appears to have been written on the biology of this species since publication of the Shell Picture Card series.” We also located a photo on FlickR. Again, this is a spectacular Longicorn and we are pleased to be able to post it as there are so few photos of this species available online.
Correction: Rhytiphora saundersi
Thanks to a comment from Mark H, we now know that this lovely Longicorn is Rhytiphora saundersi. The Worldwide Cerambycidae Photo Gallery has a photo and Lochman Transparencies has many lovely images of living specimens.
This impressive beetle is in fact Rhytiphora saundersi. It is a fairly common and widespread species throughout central Australia. Like most Rhytiphora species, the grubs are borers in Acacia.
Thanks for this correction Mark.