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Jewel Beetles
Buprestids are a highly successful family of usually wood-eating beetles - at least 15,000 species in 450 genera - but their biggest claim to fame is their bright colouration. Ridiculously bright colouration, metallic iridescence so remarkable you'd think it couldn't be real, or that somebody painted the thing.
This, for example, is one of the Australian species, Temognatha alternata, a 2.6cm long Buprestine from Cooktown. Photo by John Hill.
Believe me, the photos don't do the critters credit, even in the large version .
In real life the iridescence changes colour depending on what angle you look at it. The corpse I stumbled across today, most likely Castiarina castelnaudi, has bands of orange broken up by a deep metallic purple that changes to green. And that's just the top. The underside is bands of yellow and black, with a metallic green chestplate. With that sort of eyecatching colouration it's not surprising that jewel beetles also contain poisonous chemicals ( called buprestins ). They're quite solidly built, which is handy since the wing cases are used in jewellery and painting, embroidery, and religious inlays in Thailand, Myanmar, India, China and Japan. The beetlewings can easily outlast the surrounding cloth.
Here's an entire page featuring a small selection just of Castiarina Here's an entire book of Castiarina. Other genera include Aaata and Aaaba, which is what happens when entomologists want their discoveries near the front of the index. Alternatively, here's a few pages with photos of a tiny handful of Australian Buprestids.
Back in the 60s the Shell petrol stations handed out free collectible cards featuring them.
One last WTF - the largest Australian species, Julodimorpha bakewelli, has an unfortunately strong love of beer ( Australian. Beer. Who'da thunk it). Or at least beer bottles. The species in actually threatened, because the males would rather have sex with beer bottles instead of their own species.
Article here, papers here and here, and cartoon about it here.
This, for example, is one of the Australian species, Temognatha alternata, a 2.6cm long Buprestine from Cooktown. Photo by John Hill.
Believe me, the photos don't do the critters credit, even in the large version .
In real life the iridescence changes colour depending on what angle you look at it. The corpse I stumbled across today, most likely Castiarina castelnaudi, has bands of orange broken up by a deep metallic purple that changes to green. And that's just the top. The underside is bands of yellow and black, with a metallic green chestplate. With that sort of eyecatching colouration it's not surprising that jewel beetles also contain poisonous chemicals ( called buprestins ). They're quite solidly built, which is handy since the wing cases are used in jewellery and painting, embroidery, and religious inlays in Thailand, Myanmar, India, China and Japan. The beetlewings can easily outlast the surrounding cloth.
Here's an entire page featuring a small selection just of Castiarina Here's an entire book of Castiarina. Other genera include Aaata and Aaaba, which is what happens when entomologists want their discoveries near the front of the index. Alternatively, here's a few pages with photos of a tiny handful of Australian Buprestids.
Back in the 60s the Shell petrol stations handed out free collectible cards featuring them.
One last WTF - the largest Australian species, Julodimorpha bakewelli, has an unfortunately strong love of beer ( Australian. Beer. Who'da thunk it). Or at least beer bottles. The species in actually threatened, because the males would rather have sex with beer bottles instead of their own species.
Article here, papers here and here, and cartoon about it here.