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Lamprolina aeneipennis
A very shiny beetle with indented elytra and with red foreparts and legs. Several beetles on a Pittosporum plant have given away their location by leaving massive chew marks and general messy appeance of young saplings.
Several beetles on a Pittosporum plant have given away their location by leaving massive chew marks and general messy appearance of young pittosporum saplings. The spiky grubs were also numerous Found on the walking track to Mt Evelyn.
They seem to be out of range (as a NSW species) but records in Melbourne are known. Check out this red one from NSW (also on Bursaria) http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/132...
Spotted on Dec 31, 2014
Submitted on Dec 31, 2014
7 Comments
The only members of this genus recorded in Victoria on ALA is Lamprolina aeneipennis http://bie.ala.org.au/species/Lamprolina...
Interesting observation, interesting to see if they affect the Pittosporum bicolor as well.
I've seen them only this one time in Melbourne.
They sure were making a mess of the two tiny affected plants so your suggestion is feasible I suppose.
I will focus the pin so that you can find them if you wish.
The range reported on ALA implies it is not widespread in Victoria at all and possibly a bit cold for them.
The one I saw in Sydney (St Albans) was on Bursaria but I was not so observant in those days.
Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing !
Any chance they could act as a biological control on Sweet Pittosporum?
I had to go and check, but I do think that they are symmetrical.
Are those larger elytral 'dents' symmetrical?