Aporocera (Aporocera) sculptilis at Melba, ACT

Leaf beetle at Melba, ACT

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Identification history

	Aporocera (Aporocera) sculptilis	18 Jan 2021	KimPullen
	Unidentified	14 Jan 2021	kasiaaus

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7 comments

kasiaaus wrote:

15 Jan 2021

Wow. Thanks for the ID. I can't find any other images online for this species.

Bron wrote:

15 Jan 2021

I think this might be Aporocera rufescens Kat, see https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:6dfbc49d-d6b1-4ff8-8a48-86ba387730dd#gallery. If not, they're very alike :) Cheers Bron

kasiaaus wrote:

15 Jan 2021

Yes Bron. I agree that our beetle looks very much like Aporocera rufescens.

KimPullen wrote:

16 Jan 2021

Bron, it certainly does match the images of A. rufescens on ALA, and could well be that species. I've noticed that in the ANIC the species stratioticus stands (as stratiotica) under Aporocera. I will delve into it further.

Bron wrote:

16 Jan 2021

Thanks Kat and Kim.

KimPullen wrote:

18 Jan 2021

Kat, Comparing your (excellent) images to specimens in ANIC, I found that both A. rufescens and A. stratiotica have very dense punctures on the pronotum, so that it has a granular appearance. This one actually matches A. sculptilis, which has those punctures fine and sparse so that the pronotum appears shiny. All three occur in our region.

kasiaaus wrote:

18 Jan 2021

Thanks Kim for looking into it in such detail.

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