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Tuesday 19 October 2010

A tropical pie dish


Pie-dish beetles are members of the family Tenebrionidae, the darkling beetles. They are widespread in Australia but are mostly associated with arid habitats. Some can be as large as an Australian 20 cent coin.

In the rainforest there is a pie-dish beetle that is appropriately coloured. It seems to wander about on tree trunks where it looks like a bit of lichen.

2 comments:

Tom Weir said...

Pie dish beetles belong to the Heleini of the subfamily Tenebrioninae of Tenebrionidae. This one with the floccose waxy secretions is a member of the genus Emcephalus.

Mr. Smiley said...

Thanks Tom.
DR