Homotrysis macleayi (Borchmann, 1909)

Thorpe, Stephen E., 2014, Evidence for the continued presence in New Zealand of Homotrysismacleayi (Borchmann, 1909) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Alleculinae), Biodiversity Data Journal 2, pp. 1054-1054 : 1054

Homotrysis macleayi (Borchmann, 1909)

Allecula macleayi Borchmann, 1909 (original combination)

Allecula flavicornis Macleay, 1887 (objective synonym)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: S.E. Thorpe; individualCount: 1; Taxon: scientificName: Homotrysismacleayi (Borchmann, 1909); Location: country: New Zealand; stateProvince: Auckland; verbatimLocality: Auckland Domain; verbatimLatitude: 36.86385S; verbatimLongitude: 174.77501E; Identification: identifiedBy: Stephen E. Thorpe; Event: samplingProtocol: On trunk of Eucalyptus tree at night; eventDate: 2004-04-28; Record Level: institutionCode: Auckland Museum; collectionCode: AMNZ57969 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: S.E. Thorpe; individualCount: 3; Taxon: scientificName: Homotrysismacleayi (Borchmann, 1909); Location: country: New Zealand; stateProvince: Auckland; verbatimLocality: Tamaki Campus (East), suburb of Saint Johns, Auckland; verbatimLatitude: 36.88615S; verbatimLongitude: 174.85258E; Identification: identifiedBy: Eric G. Matthews; Event: samplingProtocol: Under loose bark of chopped up wattle tree (possibly Paraserianthes lophantha); eventDate: 2012-03-08; Record Level: institutionCode: Auckland Museum; collectionCode: AMNZ86134 (1 specimen) Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: S.E. Thorpe; individualCount: 1; Taxon: scientificName: Homotrysismacleayi (Borchmann, 1909); Location: country: New Zealand; stateProvince: Auckland; verbatimLocality: Tamaki Campus (East), suburb of Saint Johns, Auckland; verbatimLatitude: 36.88216S; verbatimLongitude: 174.85331E; Identification: identifiedBy: Stephen E. Thorpe; Event: samplingProtocol: Under bark of Pittosporum eugenioides stump, at edge of carpark.; eventDate: 2013-05-05; Record Level: institutionCode: Auckland Museum; collectionCode: AMNZ87636 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: S.E. Thorpe; individualCount: 1; Taxon: scientificName: Homotrysismacleayi (Borchmann, 1909); Location: country: New Zealand; stateProvince: Auckland; verbatimLocality: Tamaki Campus (East), suburb of Saint Johns, Auckland; verbatimLatitude: 36.88100S; verbatimLongitude: 174.85310E; Identification: identifiedBy: Stephen E. Thorpe; Event: samplingProtocol: On dead tree fern frond, on ground, by pond; eventDate: 2014-01-09; Record Level: institutionCode: Auckland Museum; collectionCode: AMNZ87720

Diagnosis

Homotrysis macleayi is easily recognised as an alleculine tenebrionid. Fig. 3 shows the diagnostic pectinate alleculine claw. The few other alleculines present in New Zealand are all lacking a dorsal vestiture of dense setae.

Distribution

I have now collected Homotrysis macleayi on four separate occasions, spread over a number of years (2004, 2012, 2013, and 2014), at two sites in the vicinity of metropolitan Auckland (Auckland Domain, and the Tamaki Campus of the University of Auckland). Figs 1, 2, 3, 4 show the most recent (2014) specimen. I am not aware of any additional records from New Zealand.

Ecology

Little or nothing is known of the ecology of Homotrysis macleayi . I have collected it on a trunk of a Eucalyptus tree at night, under the bark of a chopped up wattle tree (by which Ministry for Primary Industries 2013 assumed that I meant Acacia , but which could have just as easily been brush wattle, Paraserianthes lophantha ), under the bark of a stump of the native tree Pittosporum eugenioides at the edge of a carpark, and on the ground on a dead tree fern frond. I have only collected the species from anthropogenic habitats in metropolitan Auckland.