Tropis paradoxa

Longicorn beetle at Red Hill, ACT

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Identification history

Tropis paradoxa	24 Aug 2016	MichaelBedingfield
Tritocosmia paradoxa	23 Aug 2016	KimPullen
Unidentified	10 Aug 2016	roymcd

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Significant sighting

MichaelMulvaney noted:

29 Aug 2016

There are only nine other records of this beetle in the atlas of living Australia, and all other records are from Victoria and South Australia, well done Roy an ACT first.

11 comments

RogerF wrote:

12 Aug 2016

Very weird. Kim will probably know. Otherwise it will have to wait till I return to my library.

RogerF wrote:

12 Aug 2016

I should have added that a size (length in mm) would be useful

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

12 Aug 2016

Roger this beetle is on the introduced herb Vebascum thapsus (which I call lambs tongue), but with antennae like it has it may have been blown out of the Apple Box above it.

roymcd wrote:

12 Aug 2016

Thanks for the comments, from memory it was roughly 1cm long, 1.5cm at the maximum.

Spotted it while eradicating a few verbascum. It would seem that one of the few benefits of verbascum is that it provides a good platform for spotting the odd invertebrate.

Kind regards, Roy.

roymcd wrote:

15 Aug 2016

I'm thinking this might be Tritocosmia paradoxa?

I went to Slipinski and Escalona's 'Australian Longhorn Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) Volume 2' which came out not long ago.

On page xx of the introduction there is a picture of Tritocosmia atricilla, which looks similar but different. That narrowed down the possibilities.

See also:

http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1118006004

Kind regards, Roy.

RogerF wrote:

16 Aug 2016

Your id is correct. There is a picture on Bower Bird for the Dandenongs and Yarra Ranges group (equivalent to CNP) and in the Atlas by Ken Walker. Its not recorded for the ACT or NSW on the Atlas. It is also interesting that Tritocosmia is probably a lycid mimic.

RogerF wrote:

16 Aug 2016

I should add that the larva would probably be a wood- or stem-borer and that the adult is probably a pollen/nectar feeder and its occurrence on the mullein is accidental. It would be interesting to determine the function of the antennal tufts.

roymcd wrote:

16 Aug 2016

Thanks Roger, much appreciated. And yes, that is a fascinating question...

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

24 Aug 2016

I've downloaded the original, cropped it and added it back for use on our species page. See http://canberranaturemap.org/Community/Species/20321

roymcd wrote:

24 Aug 2016

Thanks michaelb

KimPullen wrote:

29 Aug 2016

Roy, as confirmed by Roger, your identification was correct. Only thing is, the species was moved from Tritocosmia to Tropis by Slipinski & Escalona, in the volume you referred to. Seems to be a woodland species, but quite scarce.

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