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Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:50 pm
by Kan
It is now the Calodema season in Australia. Does anyone have any tips on where to find them in Gold Coast and northern NSW? I have only seen Calodema regalis once and really want to see them again this year. Thanks

Below are the photos I took last year.

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Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 4:14 pm
by 58chevy
Wow, I wish Calodema was native to the USA. Spectacular beetle.

Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 5:03 pm
by KKarns
Handsome species for sure. Beautifully done photography as well.

Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 5:07 pm
by livingplanet3
Kan wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:50 pm It is now the Calodema season in Australia. Does anyone have any tips on where to find them in Gold Coast and northern NSW? I have only seen Calodema regalis once and really want to see them again this year. Thanks

Below are the photos I took last year...
Great photos! You might try contacting Peter Chew, who has a rather extensive website about the insects of the Brisbane area -

https://www.brisbaneinsects.com/pchew_b ... index.html

Allen Sundholm had a site about Australian Buprestidae, but it seems to no longer be online -

http://entom.customer.netspace.net.au/H ... tidae.html

Adult Calodema regalis (https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/Calodema_regalis) appear to most often be attracted to the flowers of the eucalypt Corymbia gummifera (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corymbia_gummifera), though I don't know if this tree is also the host of the larvae. Adults have been seen on the flowers of various other trees, as well.
58chevy wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 4:14 pm Wow, I wish Calodema was native to the USA. Spectacular beetle.
Agreed! I have only one species of Calodema in my collection, C. ribbei (a pair), from Papua New Guinea -

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https://www.zin.ru/animalia/coleoptera/rus/calribcc.htm

Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2022 7:26 pm
by 58chevy
I have C. ribbei & C. regale blairi. Wish I had all of them, but they are supposed to be difficult & expensive to acquire these days. Mine are decades old.

Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2022 8:39 pm
by livingplanet3
58chevy wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 7:26 pm I have C. ribbei & C. regale blairi. Wish I had all of them, but they are supposed to be difficult & expensive to acquire these days. Mine are decades old.
You're fortunate to have C. regalis; I saw a specimen (ssp. blairi) sell for the (inflated) price of over USD $500 at auction several years ago. The bidding wars on some of these Australasian buprestidae can get rather ridiculous. C. wallacei is even scarcer in collections -

Image
https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/575897871102561599/

Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2022 9:13 pm
by Trehopr1
Agreed, certainly the uncommon or rarely encountered Australian buprestidae are the equivalent of dabbling in Agrias (amongst collectors of butterflies).

Of course little wonder since some of the uncommon species have either irregular life cycles (when things don't line up during their typical hatching period) or they may have very long life cycles where adults may not hatch for many years.

Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2022 10:02 pm
by kevinkk
Those are some beautiful beetles- as if they all aren't. just some are better than others...:)
I read once in an insect book that during a piano concerto a beetle emerged out of the wood the piano was made of. I don't recall the book,
but there was some conjecture about how something like that could occur. "Is there an entomologist in the house!?"

Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2022 10:20 pm
by livingplanet3
kevinkk wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 10:02 pm Those are some beautiful beetles- as if they all aren't. just some are better than others...
I read once in an insect book that during a piano concerto a beetle emerged out of the wood the piano was made of. I don't recall the book,
but there was some conjecture about how something like that could occur. "Is there an entomologist in the house!?"
I too, seem to vaguely recall hearing about that.

Also - allegedly, on May 27, 1983, a buprestid emerged from a staircase in Essex, UK after at least 47 years as a larva. The source of this info is Guinness World Records 2005, but that's the only reference to this story that I've ever seen. What species was it? How was it confirmed that it had indeed emerged from the staircase? Was the emergence hole found? Questions!

Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2022 4:31 am
by Lucanidae25
Ken consider yourself very lucky to come across it. It took me more than 10 years of looking every year before I caught my 1st Calodema regalis. You can look at the same area every year unless all the conditions are perfect they won't come out. I don't think you need to find new areas instead you need to find the right year. There is no pattern with their emergences over the years

Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2023 9:24 am
by Kan
Lucanidae25 wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 4:31 am Ken consider yourself very lucky to come across it. It took me more than 10 years of looking every year before I caught my 1st Calodema regalis. You can look at the same area every year unless all the conditions are perfect they won't come out. I don't think you need to find new areas instead you need to find the right year. There is no pattern with their emergences over the years
Thank you very much! This year doesn't look like a good year and I haven't seen any Calodema so far.

Re: Really want to see Calodema regalis again

Posted: Mon May 15, 2023 9:39 am
by Matteo Grasso
livingplanet3 wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 8:39 pm
58chevy wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 7:26 pm I have C. ribbei & C. regale blairi. Wish I had all of them, but they are supposed to be difficult & expensive to acquire these days. Mine are decades old.
You're fortunate to have C. regalis; I saw a specimen (ssp. blairi) sell for the (inflated) price of over USD $500 at auction several years ago. The bidding wars on some of these Australasian buprestidae can get rather ridiculous. C. wallacei is even scarcer in collections -

Image
https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/575897871102561599/

Hi all, my name is Matteo and I had to register a new account to reply since my old one looks no more available.
This specimen is even rare in collection since C. wallacei from Australia doesn't seem to be more available and I truly would like to know why. Very old one are just in museums.
You can see this paper https://www.biotaxa.org/holotipus/artic ... 9790/67357. The Calodema wallacei meeki subsp. it's showed in the picture, the same than this
Image
If you have any other questions/info to share, please...don't hesitate. Thanks