A Guide to the Genera of Beetles of South Australia, Part 7 Polyphaga: Chrysomeloidea: Cerambycidae

About this book

Volume 7 covers suborder Polyphaga: superfamily Chrysomeloidea: family Cerambycidae

From the introduction:
"This volume differs from previous ones in the series in that it deals with just a single family, but the number of genera involved (85) is comparable to that of some previous parts. The reason for the large number of genera and species of cerambycids or longicorns is that they feed as larvae in the woody tissue of higher plants. Insects which have co-evolved with their higher-plant hosts have become very diverse, using speciation as a way to keep up genetically with ever-improving plant defences. The remaining families to be covered in this series are also phytophagous and even more speciose than the cerambycids.

Some attempt is made here to enable the user to identify species where there is more than one in a genus, unlike previous practise in the series. This is made possible by the fact that cerambycid species often have distinctive colour patterns which can readily be described in words or presented in simple diagrams. Even so, about a third of the South Australian species will not be identifiable by using this manual alone.

There are 206 cerambycid species known from South Australia (abbreviated to SA in the following text) in 85 genera, an average of 2.4 species per genus. The largest genus is Phoracantha Newman with 16 species in the State, followed by Atesta Pascoe, Uracanthus Hope and Platyomopsis Thomson with 10-12 each. Otherwise there are few species in each genus, with 53 genera having only one each.

Conventions used are the same as in previous parts. The keys are flow charts offering alternatives between characters when the arrows are followed. Distributions of genera are approximately indicated by the capital letters following the name: 'A' refers to an Australia-wide distribution (often not including arid areas in this group), ‘B’ to a southern or south-eastern Australian (Bassian) distribution, 'C' to a cosmopolitan or at least widespread distribution (often an invading or introduced genus), ‘E’ (Eyrean) to one largely confined to the arid zone, ‘G’ (Gondwanan) to a distribution shared only with some other southern land mass, such as New Zealand, and ‘SA’ to a genus confined to SA. The overwhelming majority of cerambycid genera have either an A- or B-type distribution.

Within the State there are three main distribution zones: (1) the dry sclerophyll, the highest rainfall areas of the South East, Mt Lofty Ranges, Kangaroo Island and southern Eyre Peninsula, (2) the mallee, a band of drier Eucalyptus woodland north or east of the dry
sclerophyll, and (3) the Eremean zone, the large area north of that, comprising first mulga (Acacia shrubland) then desert. There is a map of the three zones in the first part of this series.

However, the Cerambycidae are almost entirely associated with woodlands and most genera have a distribution which encompasses the dry sclerophyll forest grading to a greater or lesser extent into the mallee, and it would have been repetitious to state this each time. Therefore, if no distribution is described for a genus it can be assumed that it has the one just stated. Only departures from this pattern will be mentioned, as when a genus is found predominantly in the Eremean zone or has a restricted range in the State, such as Kangaroo Island only.

Numbers following generic names in the keys refer to the corresponding figure of a representative species."

Contents

Introduction    5
Acknowledgments   6

Suborder Polyphaga (Continued from Part 6)   7
Superfamily Chrysomeloidea   7
Family Cerambycidae   7
Interceptions and Introductions   15

References   17
Keys (Plates 1-17)   19
Illustrations (Figures 1-100)   37
List of Host Plants and Their Cerambycid Parasites   57
Index Of Cerambycid Genera   59
Addendum   61
Notes   62

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