Tasmanian Gold

Paropsisterna aurea

Paropsisterna aurea (Blackburn, 1899) or "Tasmanian Gold" is an Eucalyptus leaf beetle (Chrysomelinae: Paropsisterna) endemic to Tasmania, that feeds on Snow gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora). The plain elytral colour varies from citrine to golden yellow.
It is very close to, or even the same species as Paropsisterna hectica from mainland Victoria and the two may be synonymized at some point (or classified as a subspecies?). Until then the "golden" Tasmanian form is valid as P. aurea and the greenish form from the mainland as P. hectica.
Paropsisterna aurea Called Tasmanian Gold, P. aurea feeds on snow Gums throughout Tasmania. In Vicroria Paropsisterna hectica (see below) looks identical but is usually green. The beetle panel considers them to be the same species and likely to eventually be merged. Until then, Blackburn described P. aurea in 1899 and oficially the Tasmanian form is P. aurea, Records in the link below occur for Victoria but these are misnamed and is an error by myself. https://www.jungledragon.com/image/37165/paropsisterna_hectica.html Paropsisterna hectica is the mainland species. Australia,Geotagged,Paropsisterna,Paropsisterna aurea,Paropsisterna hectica,Summer,Tasmanian Gold

Appearance

Plain golden elytra

Naming

Paropsisterna aurea (Blackburn, 1899)

Food

Snow gum. White sallee
Larvae and adult are foliage feeders.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:8874a5fb-daa3-42fe-aad6-7cd9944213b7#overview
https://sites.google.com/site/paropsisternapages/paropsisterna-aurea
https://sites.google.com/site/insectsoftaschrysomeloidea/suborder-polyphaga/chrysomelidae-leaf-beetles/subfamily-chrysomelinae/genus-paropsisterna/paropsisterna-aurea
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderColeoptera
FamilyChrysomelidae
GenusParopsisterna
SpeciesParopsisterna aurea
Photographed in
Australia