(a species of false darkling-beetle)
Basis for Tasmanian occurrence
Semmens, T.D., McQuillan, P.B. & Hayhurst, G. (1992). Catalogue of the Insects of Tasmania. Government of Tasmania: Department of Primary Industry, 104 pp. (as Mystes planatus).
TMAG collections
Classification
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Superfamily: Tenebrionoidea
Family: Melandryidae
Subfamily: Melandryinae
Morphology
Typical length (mm): 7
Flightedness: winged and assumed capable of flight
Ecology
Assumed larval feeding: fungus-feeder
Association with dead wood or old trees: obligately saproxylic
Collection method(s) for TMAG material: — Sticky trapping on Eucalyptus obliqua.
Source ecological literature:
Harrison, K.S. (2007). Saproxylic beetles associated with habitat features in Eucalyptus obliqua trees in the southern forests of Tasmania. PhD thesis, Dept. of Zoology, Univ. of Tasmania, Hobart.
Yee, M. (2005). The ecology and habitat requirements of saproxylic beetles native to Tasmanian wet eucalypt forests: potential impacts of commercial forestry practices. PhD thesis, Univ. of Tasmania, Hobart.
