Species Melobasis lathami (Laporte & Gory, 1837)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Buprestis lathami Laporte de Castelnau, F.L. & Gory, H.L. 1837. Histoire Naturelle et Iconographie des Insectes Coléoptères. Monographie des Buprestides. Histoire naturelle de iconographie des insectes Coléoptères. Monographie des buprestides. Buprestis, Nascio, Acherusia, Asthraeus, Bulis, Acantha, Apatura. Paris : P. Duménil Vol. 1(12–16) 65-160 pp. [120].

  Type data:

   Holotype MNHP sex unknown, Australia (as Nouvelle-Hollande).
• Melobasis laeta Saunders, E. 1876. Descriptions of nine new species of Buprestidae. Entomologist's Monthly Magazine 13: 155-158 [156].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH sex unknown, Australia, Swan River.

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Carter, H.J. 1923. A revision of the Australian species of the genus Melobasis (Fam. Buprestidae, Order Coleoptera), with notes on allied genera. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 1923(1–2): 64–105, pls I,II [81]

 

Distribution

States

South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

SA, Vic, WA: Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Ranges (CR), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Murchison (MUR), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), Nullarbor (NUL), Pilbara (PIL), Riverina (RIV), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Yalgoo (YAL)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • South Australia
  • Victoria: Murray-Darling basin
  • Western Australia: NW coastal, SW coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Adult: diurnal, herbivore (associated flora: Acacia saligna (Labill.) H.L. Wendl. [FABACEAE] Golden Wreath Wattle (on flowers); Patersonia sp. [IRIDACEAE] (on flowers)), volant.

Larva: wood-borer.

Associated Flora References

Bellamy, C.L., Williams, G.A., Hasenpusch, J. & Sundholm, A. 2013. A summary of the published data on host plants and morphology of immature stages of Australian jewel beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), with additional new records. Insecta Mundi 0293: 1-172 [62] (Acacia saligna)

Hawkeswood, T.J. 2011. Review of the biology and host plants for the Australian species of the genus Melobasis Laporte & Gory, 1837 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). Calodema 183: 1-23 [8] (Acacia saligna)

Van Den Berg, M.A. 1980. Natural enemies of Acacia cyclops A. Cunn. ex G. Don and Acacia saligna (Labill.) Wendl. in Western Australia. II. Coleoptera. Phytophylactica 12: 169-171 [170] (Acacia saligna)

Whitlock, F.L. 1947. West Australian jewel beetles. Western Australian Naturalist 1: 9-13 [12] (Acacia saligna)

 

General References

Burns, G.G. & Burns, A.J. 1992. The distribution of Victorian jewel beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) - an ENTRECS project. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Victoria 5: 1-53 [8] (Map 42)

Carter, H.J. 1921. Results of Dr. E. Mjöberg's Swedish scientific expeditions to Australia 1910–1913. 25. Buprestidae. Arkiv för Zoologi 13(22): 1-6 [2]

Carter, H.J. 1929. A check list of the Australian Buprestidae. With tables and keys to sub-families, tribes, and genera (by A. Théry). The Australian Zoologist 5(4): 265-304 [Date published 24 Mar 1929] [285]

Lea, A.M. 1912. The late Rev. Canon Thomas Blackburn, B.A., and his entomological work. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 36: v-xl [xxix] (bicolor, soror)

Levey, B. 2018. A revision of the Australian species of the genus Melobasis Laporte & Gory 1837 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), Part 2 (Revision of the nervosa species group). Zootaxa 4528(1): 1-79 [32, Figs 27–28, 83–85, 135–136, 169, 178]

Masters, G. 1886. Catalogue of the described Coleoptera of Australia. Part III. Lucanidae and Scarabaeidae. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 2 1: 21-126 [73, 74] (laeta 2678, lathami 2679, rubromarginata 2687)

Obenberger, J. 1930. Buprestidae 2. pp. 213-568 in Junk, W. & Schenkling, S. (eds). Coleopterorum Catalogus. Berlin : W. Junk Vol. 111. [432]

Obenberger, J. 1930. Buprestidae 2. pp. 213-568 in Junk, W. & Schenkling, S. (eds). Coleopterorum Catalogus. Berlin : W. Junk Vol. 111. [432] (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement rubromarginata, laeta, bicolor, costipennis, soror as varieties)

Saunders, E. 1868. A revision of the Australian Buprestidae described by the Rev. F. W. Hope. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 16: 1-67 [Date published April 1868] [17]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
03-Oct-2024	BUPRESTIDAE Leach, 1815	03-Oct-2024	MODIFIED
16-Jun-2022	BUPRESTIDAE Leach, 1815	10-Sep-2024	MODIFIED
04-Aug-2021	BUPRESTIDAE Leach, 1815	03-Oct-2024	MODIFIED
24-Dec-2020	BUPRESTOIDEA	03-Oct-2024	MODIFIED
01-Jul-2020	POLYPHAGA	03-Oct-2024	MODIFIED	Max Beatson
05-Mar-2019	BUPRESTIDAE Leach, 1815	03-Oct-2024	MODIFIED
05-Mar-2019	Buprestinae Leach, 1815	03-Oct-2024	MODIFIED
05-Mar-2019	Buprestinae Leach, 1815	03-Oct-2024	MODIFIED
28-Jan-2014	BUPRESTIDAE Leach, 1815	03-Oct-2024	MODIFIED	Dr Federica Turco (QM)
10-Oct-2012		10-Oct-2012	MOVED
13-Nov-2012		03-Oct-2024	MODIFIED
		03-Oct-2024	MODIFIED