Farm Forestry New Zealand
PESTS AND DISEASES OF FORESTRY IN NEW ZEALAND
Beetle discovery demonstrates the power of citizen science
From Forest Health News 286, December 2018.
Citizen science has once again proven its value, with the detection of another new-to-New Zealand organism. On October 25th 2018, iNaturalist NZ user jacqui-nz recorded a leaf beetle (Chrysomelidae) in the suburb of Kelston, Auckland. Although there is nothing to suggest that the uploader considered the beetle to be anything unusual, the observation quickly attracted the attention of Stephen Thorpe, who recognised the beetle as an unfamiliar member of the Australian genus Peltoschema. He notified MPI of the find as a suspected new incursion and it has now been formally identified by them as an undescribed species of Peltoschema near P. orphana.
Subsequent searches for the species in Auckland by Stephen Thorpe and MPI have found adults to be consistently present on Acacia longifolia in several suburbs, including Kelston, Glen Eden, Titirangi, New Lynn, Blockhouse Bay, Onehunga, Point Chevalier and Auckland Central. The full extent of its distribution in New Zealand has yet to be determined. Only adults have been observed so far.
The species is morphologically extremely similar to P. orphana (which is not present in New Zealand), however P. orphana is restricted to bipinnate wattles, whereas this species has only been found on A. longifolia, which has phyllodes. Two other species of the genus have been recorded from New Zealand, P. suturalis in Wellington (eradicated), and also another much smaller undescribed species which was first recorded in Auckland in 1976 and which is now very common.
Stephen Thorpe (independent researcher) & Andrew Pugh (Scion)
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