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Scraptia laticollis Champion, 1895 (a species of false flower-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 Scraptia laticollis)

TMAG collections

Classification

Order: Coleoptera

Suborder: Polyphaga

Superfamily: Tenebrionoidea

Family: Scraptiidae

Subfamily: Scraptiinae

Morphology

Typical length (mm): 2.6
Flightedness: winged and assumed capable of flight

Ecology

Assumed larval feeding: detritivore
Association with dead wood or old trees: obligately saproxylic

Ecological attributes: — Affiliated with bark on non-wounded trees (Harrison, 2007) — May occupy logs or trunks of Eucalyptus obliqua, at least temporarily, since found having emerged within six years of felling (Grove et al., 2009).

Collection method(s) for TMAG material: — Baited trapping (funnel trap) — Emergence trapping from cut billets of Eucalyptus obliqua (Harrison, 2007) — Emergence trapping from log of Eucalyptus obliqua — Knockdown fogging of canopy of Athrotaxis selaginoides — Knockdown fogging of canopy of Nothofagus cunninghamii — Knockdown fogging of canopy of Nothofagus gunnii — Knockdown spraying of bark of Eucalyptus sp. — Malaise trapping — Not specified — Pitfall trapping — Sticky trapping on Eucalyptus obliqua — Vane trapping.

Source ecological literature:
Grove, S.J. (2009b). Beetles and fuelwood harvesting: a retrospective study from Tasmania’s southern forests. Tasforests 18: 77-99.
Hopkins, A.J.M. et al. (2005). Wood decay fungi and beetle assemblages associated with living Eucalyptus obliqua trees: early results from studies at the Warra LTER Site, Ta
Grove, S. et al. (2009). A long-term experimental study of saproxylic beetle … succession in Tasmanian Eucalyptus … logs… In: Fattorini, S. (Ed.), Insect Ecology and Conservation. Research Signpost, pp. 71-114.
Grove, S.J. & Yaxley, B. (2005). Wildlife habitat strips and native forest ground-active beetle assemblages in plantation nodes in northeast Tasmania. Aust. J. Entom. 44 (4): 331-343.
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.

Scraptia laticollis
Scraptia laticollis
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