Strongly Striated Chalcopterus Beetle
Little Sardinian Beetle
S1, Antenna & Face (to the right)
| Strongly Striated Chalcopterus Beetle | | Little Sardinian Beetle S1, Antenna & Face (to the right) | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Beetles (Coleoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Darkling Beetle (Tenebrionidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Little Sardinian Beetle (Cheirodes sardous) | ||||
| This Photo: | S1, dorsal | ||||
Thank you Mark Hura for identifying this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere ~5mm long. We suspected they were introduced as we found them in the kitchen and assumed they had transported in from flowers or veggies. But the records showing distribution seem higher in Southern Australia than the rest of the world; indicating they originated here. Mark said "Introduced here from Nthn Africa/Mediterranean. The first records of it here are from WA in the 1920's and they have been recorded here in SA since the 1960's" We also found a couple of records from Victoria in 1943. This implies it's been in SA longer than we thought. We'd expect them to travel thru SA from WA toward Victoria; unless it was a separate introduction. Interestingly these seem rare in their countries of origin ... perhaps we can catch them & ship them back | |||||
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