Subject: What’s this beetle?
Location: Australia, Queensland, Brisbane
November 23, 2015 3:05 pm
I found a really cool beetle in my bedroom but could not find out what type of beetle it was and am trying to get it identified. Also the bug has been released.
Signature: By Nic
Dear Nic,
This is a Longicorn in the family Cerambycidae, but more specifically it is a Prionid in the subfamily Prioninae. At first we believed we had correctly identified the species as Sceleocantha pilosicollis based on the image posted to Prioninae of the World. Additional research on Atlas of Living Australia only lists the species in West Australia, so we decided to search other members of the genus. We learned on Atlas of Living Australia that Sceleocantha glabricollis is listed in Queensland and the rest of Eastern Australia, so we believe it may the the correct species. We would not rule out that we might be wrong, but the mandibles on the individual pictured on Prioninae of the World look quite similar to your specimen. An image we located on FlickR is also a good visual match.
