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Castiarina erythroptera
Red deeply ribbed jewel beetle (Buprestidae)
Feeding on flowering ti tree
Associated with model Lycid beetle. Pics #3 and #4 are the lycid beetle. This jewel beetle is a mimic.
7 Comments
Hey brainpunk, these two beetles do look similar. This is because this jewel beetle is mimicing a Lycid (net winged) beetle. Lycid beetles apparently taste bad (although I haven't actually tried one) and several other creatures, including this moth mimic them. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/895...
Please check an update on your beetle, as I think the name is different to Ashash's suggestion.
Hey that looks like mine.. Net winged I think they called it.
Thanks Mayra and Atul.
cool!
Gorgeous!!
This jewel beetle mimics the same lycid beetle http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/792...
Great series!