Brown to bronze colouration, often with coppery reflections on the frons and vertex of head. Readily distinguished from the superficially similar M. sordida by the medial pronotum having simple puncta (rather than transversely elongated ones).
Previously treated on this website as Melobasis sp. Brown prior to its publication by Levey 2023. The type collection is from Yunta in the Eastern Region (EA) of SA.
In Western Australia adults have been found associated with Acacia foliage, and there are breeding records there by T.M.S. Hanlon from dead Acacia saligna and by M. Powell and D. Knowles from both an unidentified Acacia and from A. victoriae (Levey 2023). The last species, Elegant Wattle, is widespread across SA, while the first, Golden Wreath Wattle, is commonly planted and has become naturalised in some parts of the State.
| ¹ Legend | regions | SA State Herbarium regions (map)
EA: Eastern, EP: Eyre Peninsula, FR: Flinders Ranges, GT: Gairdner-Torrens, KI: Kangaroo Island, LE: Lake Eyre, MU: Murray, NL: Northern Lofty, NU: Nullarbor, NW: North-Western, SE: South-Eastern, SL: Southern Lofty, YP: Yorke Peninsula |
| size | The ellipse is the correct size when printed, indicative on a desktop screen, and likely to be wrong on a mobile device. |