Melobasis sordida

subfamily Buprestinae » tribe Melobasini » subtribe Melobasina

Melobasis species group: nervosa

	male	female
L1	10.2	7.4 – 12.9	n = 42	10.7	8.7 – 12.15	n = 21
L2	10.1	7.05 – 12.4	n = 16	10.5	8.5 – 11.8	n = 6
W	3.5	2.5 – 4.6	n = 42	3.7	3 – 4.2	n = 21

male

female

10.2

7.4 – 12.9

n = 42

10.7

8.7 – 12.15

n = 21

10.1

7.05 – 12.4

n = 16

10.5

8.5 – 11.8

n = 6

3.5

2.5 – 4.6

n = 42

3.7

3 – 4.2

n = 21

Bronze (to greyish-, or red-purplish- bronze) above, with substantial areas of green below in the males. Levey 2018 noted the dense tranversely 'stretched' puncta in the middle of the pronotum as a diagnostic feature of this species.

Melobasis sordida is common in the Adelaide area and over much of SA where it is found on the foliage of various Acacia species. Carter 1929 placed M. sordida in synonymy under M. simplex, but the two are distinct species and they have been assigned to different species-groups by Levey 2018.

Adult activity records for Melobasis sordida (total actual records: 182 beetles)

The adults are foliage-feeders and have been found on a number of different Acacia species. I reared adults of M. sordida from billets cut from the dead stems of two different Acacia species: one individual from Dog Wattle (A. wattsiana) and one from A. spilleriana. It is likely to breed in many other Acacia species.

Legend	L1	length from clypeus/frons to elytral apex (mean, range, sample size)
	L2	length from anterior of edge of eyes to elytral apex
	W	maximum width with elytra fully closed

Legend
9	number of active beetles, actually recorded in that quarter-month
	actual count > 6 (median)
	actual count <= 6 (median)

Legend	beetles	count of beetles collected from, or sighted on, host plant taxon
	sites	count of major sites (unique 10 km grid cells +/- some distinct approximate localities)
	*	indicates alien (non-native) plant occurrences, either wild or planted (the species may be alien in SA, or native in parts of its SA range)
Plant names in green are hyperlinked to a matching host species page with plant photos.

Code		beetles	%	host plant taxa
F	Fabaceae	172	98%	14
A	Asteraceae	1	1%	1
C	Cupressaceae	1	1%	1
E	Euphorbiaceae	1	1%	1
P	Pittosporaceae	1	1%	1

position	beetles	sites
on flowering plant	11	5
on foliage or non-flowering plant	159	39
on plant (unspecified)	6	5
other
on stems	1	1

Legend		P.J.Lang collection vouchered records
		other private collection or museum specimens, or sightings

	records	sites	SA regions¹	family	adult ex billet
Acacia spilleriana	1	1	MU	F	1
Acacia wattsiana	1	1	NL	F	1

Legend	records	count of breeding adults, pupae and larvae
	sites	count of major sites (unique 10 km grid cells +/- some distinct approximate localities)
	adult	live = extracted alive; dead = extracted dead as intact or fragmentary remains; ex billet = reared and emerged from stored sections of host; ex pupa = reared from sampled pupa
	pupa	extracted pupa; pupa ex larva = reared pupa from larva
	larva	extracted larva (any stage including prepupa)
	gall (only)	hatched or unhatched gall identified by form and position rather than contents
Plant names in green are hyperlinked to a matching host species page with plant photos.

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.