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Necrobia pinguis
A small beetle with a rectangular-shaped body and about 6 mm long. Elytral bases were broad and outer margins parallel. The black elytra had two thin white transverse lines. Thorax was a deep red, rounded, pitted and covered with setae. Eyes were dark on a flexed dark head. Antennae were beaded with pale scapes. Legs were red and also covered with setae.
Spotted in an outer shed in a suburban garden.
My thanks to bayucca for confirming the family and for providing resources.
I have found some very old documentation ( 1852) about this clerid from the Zoological Society of London. I am sure the beetle is what is described but might have had a name change since :
"Necrobia pinguis Westw.
Short, thick. Head small, black, closely and densely punctured. Antennae black; the base and labrum fulvous. Prothorax much wider than the head; the sides in the middle dilated into a rounded tubercle, thickly punctured, some of the punctures larger; rugose, sanguineous. Elytra black, roughly punctured; with a slender nearly straight band in the middle, and another near the tip, whitish. Scutellum rufous. Body beneath, with legs, of reddish testaceous.
Hah. Van Diemens Land. "
Source: Nomenclature of Coleopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum
Cleridæ
Might have a synonym -Parapylus bicinctus
2 Comments
Thanks for the links Dominik and hope the lecture goes well. I will work on it.
Yes one of the over 350 Cleridae of Australia. Would be a nice Sunday challenge, but I have to prepare a lecture, so I have to keep you alone with these hairy critters...
http://www.cleridae.info
https://www.flickr.com/photos/zosterops/...