InsectNet forum

Not to hijack this thread, but since kevinkk mentioned Pleocoma and Christmas tree farms, you might find this of interest:

http://scarabsnewsletter.com/scarabs_38.pdf

I've read that article, I am missing my specimens of Pleocoma, perhaps I'll need to drive to the valley next fall. Those buckets of beetles do make
the phrase "locally common" a bit relevant, albeit with a little human help.

I'm surprised Acrocinus longimanus (Linnaeus, 1758) hasn't come up yet as one of the weirdest looking Cerambycidae. Known from southern Mexico, Central and South America, I was fortunate enough to collect one in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, a number of years ago. It's known for often having large numbers of phoretic mites and pseudoscorpions are also commonly found under the elyta and are thought to use the beetles for dispersal.

Photo courtesy of J.P. Roguet (lamiinae.org)

Your right alandmor !
That's a great candidate for the thread and (if I had one personally) I probably would have posted it with nary a thought....

That's an amazingly well done specimen !!

Hi All,

This is a beautifully prepared specimen and a wonderful image. But please tell me I'm half-blind and that this is not on a massive platen?! Surely the gray is just a highlight feature of the image. I only ask because I did once receive in an exchange years ago a specimen of a prionid around 50mm in length glued onto a card. I had to add a second pin in the front end to hold it up, until I finally relaxed it, de-carded it and put a pin through it...

Cheers!
Bandrow

bandrow wrote: ↑Sat Mar 11, 2023 12:45 am Hi All,

This is a beautifully prepared specimen and a wonderful image. But please tell me I'm half-blind and that this is not on a massive platen?! Surely the gray is just a highlight feature of the image. I only ask because I did once receive in an exchange years ago a specimen of a prionid around 50mm in length glued onto a card. I had to add a second pin in the front end to hold it up, until I finally relaxed it, de-carded it and put a pin through it...

Cheers!
Bandrow

I see what you mean. No visible pin and the oddly placed label. I guess the only way to know would be to ask J.P. Roguet at lamiinae.org.

I suspect the owner of this specimen is not interested in looking at the underside.

Adam.

One would certainly not need to see the bottom for ID! I have several of these, and to be honest, I can't recall ever really examining the underside of them - I'll have to flip one over and see what I've been missing!!

Cheers!
Bandrow

Not sure what the gray area is, but this is a photoshopped image. The head, pronotum and elytra appear to be natural and original, but the legs and antennae are photoshopped - hence the absolute perfection of symmetry. The right side, or the left side, has been mirrored. Very good job though!

alandmor wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 4:13 pm I'm surprised Acrocinus longimanus (Linnaeus, 1758) hasn't come up yet as one of the weirdest looking Cerambycidae...

Certainly, this is one of the most distinctive and well-known of all tropical Cerambycidae.

Worth mentioning are the unusual beetles of the family Trictenotomidae, which rather resemble cerambycids of the subfamily Prioninae, but are actually in the superfamily Tenebrionoidea -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trictenotomidae

Autocrates aeneus -


Source: https://twitter.com/fukuinsect/status/1 ... 8065959940


Source: https://twitter.com/fukuinsect/status/1 ... 8065959940

livingplanet3 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 5:28 pm Worth mentioning are the unusual beetles of the family Trictenotomidae, which rather resemble cerambycids of the subfamily Prioninae, but are actually in the superfamily Tenebrionoidea -

No kidding. I did not know that. Convergent evolution is amazing.

Bizarre Beetle for sale online years ago... I.D?
John K.

And to think their closest apparent relatives are the Salpingidae! I don't think there's a NA salpingid that breaks 10 mm in length - here are a couple of links to typical NA salpingids (although few salpingids could be called "typical" beetles):

https://bugguide.net/node/view/953537
https://bugguide.net/node/view/745706/bgimage

I've seen trictenotomids offered many times on dealer lists as Cerambycidae or Lucanidae...

Cheers,
Bandrow

boghaunter1 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 1:09 am Bizarre Beetle for sale online years ago... I.D?

Weird Beetle dorsal.jpg

Weird beetle ventral.jpg

John K.

I’m not 100% positive on the species but it looks like Pachycnema corepurporea - Rutelinae or Melolonthinae. Tribe Hopliini. Commonly known as monkey beetles.

Would be a nice addition to the thread “Unusual and/or unique Scarabeidae”!

Yaa.... noticed it next day after I posted it... wrong thread... oh well... apologies . It is one cool beetle though IMHO!

John K.

Doliops spp. - mimics of Pachyrhynchus spp. - Not "weird", but beautiful & rare Cerambycid mimics of the even more (IMHO!) beautiful Pachyrhynchus weevils found in the Philippines. Pachyrhynchus weevils are beautiful little weevils with multi colored scales forming intricate patterns on their extremely hard bodies (wing covers are fused shut, therefore they cannot fly). Following are 2 photos of a small selection of Pachyrhnchus (the models) in my collection.

Pachyrhnchus weevils

These are some of the Cerambycid mimics - they are much rarer than the model Pachyrhynchus weevils, have very soft bodies & can fly. At auction years ago these little mimics commanded huge prices of $75.00 - +150.00 each! New spp. of both the model weevils & their cerambycid mimics are still being discovered to this day.

John K.

Here is one of the more recently described sp. of Doliops - D. taylori from Nueva Viscaya, Luzon, Philippines. It was named in honor of a fellow friend/collector here in Saskatchewan!



John K.

Unusual little Cerambycids.... I.D.'s?.... unknown locations,


John K.