Until recently, this species was poorly known in SA, and the only collections from the State in the SA Museum were two specimens collected in 1879 and 1880. In November 2015, A.M.P. Stolarski collected an individual from WSW of Coomandook, and since then numerous other records of it have been made from mallee heath habitat in the northern part of the SE Region and extending into the extreme south of MU Region. Its presence on Eyre Peninsula (EP Region) was inferred from incomplete dead adult remains found in November 2022, and from matching larvae at a separate site in July 2023. It was found in the eastern Mt Lofty Ranges (SL Region) in September 2023. It seems likely to also occur in Victoria and possibly other eastern States.

B. Levey (pers. comm., Jul. 2020) considered that this may be 'M. ignicollis' or something closely related to it. Subsequently, I sent him six specimens collected from the upper SE Region, and in in April 2024 he confirmed their identity as that species. The name 'ignicollis' was applied by Carter 1923b to a variety he described under M. obscurella, a species from a different species-group. The new combination at species level will not be applied here until it has been formally published by Levey.

The SA Museum has two syntype specimens of Carter's name, and the one labelled by Levey as a proposed Lectotype is illustrated here. It is notable for its prominently red-coloured pronotum, which also features on the second specimen but that has well-developed green reflections there also. They were collected by Tepper in December of 1880 and 1879 respectively, during the period when he was residing at Ardrossan on Yorke Peninsula. The first is most likely to be from that district, and the second is almost certainly from Ardrossan, as Tepper collected a specimen of Temognatha mitchellii with that locality on the same date.

Adult and larval host records of this species in the MU and SE Regions were discovered by A.M.P. Stolarski. They provide strong evidence for its regular breeding in Rough-leaf Common Correa (Correa reflexa var. scabridula).

More recently, I found incomplete dead remains of what appears to be the same species in a root crown of Small-leaf Microcybe (Microcybe multiflora) on Eyre Peninsula. This plant belongs to the same family as the Correa, Rutaceae. As the beetle identification was based largely on just a single elytron, it is regarded as tentative.

Two more recent records of larvae with prothoracic details matching those of the SE specimens were extracted from Salmon Correa (Correa pulchella) on EP and provide further support both for its occurrence in this region and the host association with plant family Rutaceae.

In September 2023, A. Stolarski and I found evidence of it breeding in the SL region using a third Correa species, C. glabra var. turnbullii (Smooth Correa) as larval host.

In addition to its larval host, adults have been collected on the foliage of a range of different shrub species. The Tepper syntype labels record that he collected it from Broombush Melaleuca uncinata and Mallee Honey-myrtle M. acuminata.