Australian fire jewel beetle
| Australian fire jewel beetle | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg)
Australian fire jewel beetle ( Merimna atrata ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Merimna atrata | ||||||||||||
| ( Gory & Castelnau , 1837) |
The Australian fire jewel beetle ( Merimna atrata ) is a species of beetle in the family Buprestidae within the suborder Polyphaga . The genus Merimna is monotypical and belongs to the subfamily Buprestinae . The scientific name means "blackened sorrow" with reference to the color.
features
The jewel beetle , around 20 millimeters long, lives in Australia (not Tasmania) and lives phytophagus in and on eucalyptus trees (such as Corymbia calophylla ). It is similar in shape and color to the Holarctic Melanophila acuminata - but to which it is not very closely related as it belongs to a different tribe . The elytra are adorned with several partly curved, shiny longitudinal ridges. The shoulder corners of the pronotum are much clearer than those of the black pine jewel beetle . The ventral side is light due to the old hair.
development
The colorless larvae are, as is usual with jewel beetles, "spoon-shaped" (with a very wide prothorax ). In the bast of these trees they eat winding passages with an oval cross-section. With its strong mandibles , the larva also prepares the oval loophole for the beetle before it pupates. This development is hardly possible in undamaged trees because the tree has defense mechanisms at its disposal, especially the resin. Fire is by nature an important factor in the ecology of many Eucalyptus species and was still promoted by humans. In the time until the fire-damaged specimens are driven out again, the "fire beetle" finds its chance to lay eggs. Therefore, after mating, it often lays its eggs on glowing, smoking trunks. He must therefore be able to spot forest fires from a great distance. The distant orientation is undoubtedly again olfactory here , but this has not yet been investigated.
The infrared sense organs
In contrast to the black pine jewel beetle, the infrared sensilles are located on the side of the sternites (belly plates) of the abdomen , mainly on the second and third abdominal ring (they can also be more indistinctly found on the first, fourth and fifth) in (i.e. usually four) rounded, concave plates. The fine structure also differs - the innervation is only carried out by a divided dendrite. However, the functional principle is the same as with Melanophila : a narrow range of IR radiation heats cuticular structures, the expansion of which mechanically irritates the dendrite ends. It therefore happens that he is attracted by anthropogenic , inadequate stimuli such as mercury vapor lamps and crashes en masse. An air cushion is used for thermal insulation from the animal's hemolymph . The organ is even somewhat similar to the thermosensors (see pit organ ) at the front end of the snout of rattling snakes and giant snakes ( Crotalidae and Boidae ) - the finest increases in temperature are perceived. Overall, it can be stated that the level of development of the organ is already higher in Melanophila than in Merimna , which may be related to the fact that forest and bush fires are generally of greater ecological relevance in Australia than in the Holarctic - and are therefore easier to find.
supporting documents
- ^ TJ Hawkeswood (2007): Review of the biology of the genus Merimna Saunders 1868 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). - Calodema 9: 12-13.
- ↑ T. Mainz, A. Schmitz, H. Schmitz (2004): Variation in number and differentiation of the abdominal infrared receptors in the Australian 'fire-beetle' Merimna atrata (Coleoptera, Buprestidae). - Arthropod structure & development 33: 419-430.
- ^ H. Schmitz, A. Schmitz, H. Bleckmann (2000): A new type of infrared organ in the Australian "fire-beetle" Merimna atrata (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). - Science 87: 542-545.
- ^ H. Schmitz, S. Trenner (2003): Electrophysiological characterization of the multipolar thermoreceptors in the "fire-beetle" Merimna atrata and comparison (etc.). Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 189: 715-722.
- ^ TJ Hawkeswood (2007): Review of the biology of the genus Merimna Saunders 1868 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). - Calodema 9: 12-13.
- ↑ H. Schmitz, A. Schmitz, H. Bleckmann (2001): Morphology of a thermosensitive multipolar neuron in the infrared organ of Merimna atrata (Coleoptera, Buprestidae). - Arthropod structure & development 30: 99-111.