Tarsostenus hilaris (Westwood, 1849) (a species of checkered beetle)

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 Blackburniella hilaris)

TMAG collections

Typical length (mm): 7
Flightedness: winged and assumed capable of flight

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

Ecological attributes: — Breeds in dead or dying Acacia dealbata trees (Bashford, 1991) — Found in galls of Uromycladium on Acacia dealbata (Bashford, 2002) — Found in stems of Eucalyptus obliqua, where predatory on larvae of Epithora dorsalis (Bashford, 1994) — Has a one-year life-cycle (Bashford, 1994).

Collection method(s) for TMAG material: — Hand collection from flowers of Helichrysum purpurascens (Ettershanks & Ettershanks, 1993) — Malaise trapping — Not specified — Pipe trapping — Sticky trapping (substrate not specified) — Sticky trapping on Acacia dealbata — Sticky trapping on Eucalyptus globulus — Sticky trapping on Eucalyptus viminalis — 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.
Bashford, R. (1991). Wood-boring Coleoptera and associated insects reared from Acacia dealbata Link in Tasmania. Aust. Entom. Mag. 18 (3): 103-110.
Bashford, R. (1994). Life history and mortality of the longicorn Epithora dorsalis MacLeay (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in Tasmania. Aust. Entom. 21 (4): 125-136.
Bashford, R. (2002a). The insect fauna inhabiting Uromycladium (Uredinales) rust galls on silver wattle (Acacia dealbata) in Tasmania. Aust. Entom. 29 (3): 81-95.