Aaata finchi
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| ( CO Waterhouse , 1884) |
Aaata FinChi is a beetle from the family of jewel beetles . It is the largest known jewel beetle in the Palearctic Region , possibly in the whole world.
features
Aaata finchi is uniformly brown in color and reaches a body length of 70 millimeters and more. The surface of the body is covered with fine, sand-white felt-like hairs, apart from the elevations of the surface sculpture. The pronotum has a longitudinal impression in the middle and a raised, smooth, curved line and a number of spot-like elevations on the sides. The wing covers are wrinkled with smooth and shiny, raised wrinkles, but they do not form a specific pattern.
distribution
The distribution area of this rare species is in Balochistan , a desert region in southeastern Iran that extends partially to Pakistan and Afghanistan . Karachi is mentioned as a place of discovery in the first description .
Systematics
The species is closely related to the genus Julodis and was first described as Julodis finchi , named after B. Finch, who gave the first known specimen to the London Zoological Society . Of the species of the genus Julodis differs Aaata FinChi mainly by the size of seven inches and more (as opposed to two to four centimeters) so that they by Semenov was made in 1906 in its own genus. The name of this so far monotypical genus is a curiosity due to the triple vowel and is one of the very first genus names of the animal kingdom in the alphabet. Nevertheless it is also grammatically correct - (Gr.) Aaatos comes e.g. B. in Homer, it means something like "inviolable, inviolable, divinely pure". The feminine form probably follows the gender of Buprestis .
Market value
In the trade in prepared insects (which scientifically working entomologists are usually very critical of), Aaata finchi is one of the coveted rarities. With top prices of several hundred euros for a specimen, it is one of the most expensive jewel beetle species.
literature
- Manfred Niehuis: The jewel beetles in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. Society for Nature Conservation and Ornithology Rhineland-Palatinate, Landau 2004, ISBN 3-937-78304-0
- CO Waterhouse: Description of a new species of Julodis. In: Annals and Magazine of Natural History (5) 14.1884: 429-430. (Initial description)
