Trictenotoma grayi

Trictenotoma grayi
Specimen from the Western Ghats, Mudigere
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Superfamily: Tenebrionoidea
Family: Trictenotomidae
Genus: Trictenotoma
Species: T. grayi
Binomial name
Trictenotoma grayi
Smith, 1851

Trictenotoma grayi is a species of beetle and the only representative of the family Trictenotomidae from southern India. They can be easily mistaken for cerambycid beetles but the antennae arising from a notch in front of the eye give away the family.

The eye and antennal base

The head and thorax are black and covered by fine ochre coloured hairs. The thorax has two raised spots that lack the hairs. The body underneath is clothed in whitish hairs. The mandibles point forward and the tips cross at rest while the teeth interlock.[1][2]

The species is named after a specimen first collected by Samuel Neville Ward from the North Kanara region of Karnataka. The species is found along the Western Ghats.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 List of the Coleopterous Insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part 1. Cucujidae, &c. London: British Museum. 1851. pp. 18–19.
  2. Lefroy, Maxwell (1909). Indian Insect Life. Calcutta & Simla: Thacker, Spink & Co. pp. 347–348.
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