Jewel beetle (Castiarina bella)

One of the larger ti-tree jewel beetles at about 18mm long.
This one was wandering between heavily laden inflorescences.
Feeding on Leptospermum scoparium.
In a local national park (Churchill NP)

comments (3)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

Another nice one for the growing collection :)

Small note: we had already used the common name "Jewel beetle" for this one:
http://www.jungledragon.com/specie/7938/jewel_beetle_castiarina_sexplagiata.html

The problem with using the same common name for multiple species is that when people use that name in the identification dialog, it will pick the first of the two, regardless of whether that is correct. Posted 9 years ago
1. Mark Ridgway
  
  Lion
  
  Hmm.. ok. I will need to rethink them all then. As WildFlower found out we have literally hundreds of just this genus with no distinct common name and that is true of most Australian wildlife. Might need to get creative. Posted 9 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    Note that in case there is no established common name that is somewhat unique, it is recommended to leave the common name the same as the binomial name. That solves the problem. Posted 9 years ago