Notched-leg Red & Blue Flower Beetle
S4, Female, dorsal
Ellura
Notched-leg Red & Blue Flower Beetle
S4, Female, profile
 
                      
Notched-leg Red & Blue Flower Beetle (Dicranolaius cinctus)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Beetles (Coleoptera)
Family: Soft-winged Flower Beetle (Melyridae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Notched-leg Red & Blue Flower Beetle (Dicranolaius cinctus)
This Photo:     S3, Female, profile
Other names: Pollen Beetle or Red and Blue Flower Beetle

Thank you Gabriele Franzini for identifying and Thomas Mesaglio for helping with the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
~4 - 6mm long. We have found these feeding on saltbush flowers
We thought this was Dicranolaius bellulus. Thomas said "lack of red elytral tips should eliminate bellulus"
D. cinctus can be recognised by a notch in the fore-femur of males (which our females don't have)
Interestingly we have found both male & female Dicranolaius bellulus, but we have only found females of this species.

Copyright © 2021-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 27-Jan-2021
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.