After looking through iNaturalist observations, it became clear to me that the Dermestes ater of Autralia looks different from the nominal form of the species. Even the paper of Liu et al. (2022), revising the the Australian hide, larder and carpet beetles, show a photo of this local colour variety of D. ater. Since I haven't found this colour variation described in existing literature, I will call it the "aussie" colour variation for now.
The regular form of this species sometimes have a few scarcely discernible spots of golden setae on the pronotum (Peacock 1993), but this pubescence pattern is too dense to call it "scarcely" and "discernible". The density of the golden brown setae also appears in different gradients. The variants with lesser dense golden pubescence on the pronotum remind me somewhat of Dermestes sardous and Dermestes asiaticus. The pronotum of the variants with more dense golden pubescence appear fully golden.
Pictures above: D. ater from Australia, lesser dense "aussie" variants. By (from left to right) bt_wrenhill, Auradyme, larrylobster, duke_n, Mike and daniel_heald on iNaturalist.
Picture above: D. ater from Australia.
By Andrew Humpage on iNaturalist.
Pictures above (left to right): D. ater and D. asiaticus by Andreas Herrmann from his gallery and D. sardaous by Emilio Martínez Sabarís on iNaturalist and D. bicolor by Lech Borowiec from his gallery.
The base of the elytra of the more dense "aussie" variants of D.ater also have golden brown setae, similar to the setae in the pronotum. Perhaps they even resemble Dermestes bicolor a bit due to this trait.
To importance of knowing that this variety exists became clear after a sighting of a Dermestes beetle from Argentina was uploaded to iNaturalist (number 4 in the photo collage below). At first it was thought that it probably was a species of the peruvianus species complex, with Dermestes boliviensis as the most likely option: densely covered in yellow setae with long yellow setae on the pronotum and base of elytra and short yellow satae at the apex of the elytra according to literature (Háva 2005). Sounds like a prefect match! And to add to the mystery, no photos or drawings depicting D. boliviensis are available to compare to. Convinced, I even send a mail to Háva himself.
However, in the end it turned out to be D. ater. Nonetheless, it's good to know this unusual colour morph is also present on other continents besides Australia.
Pictures above: D. ater from Australia (1-3) and Argentina (4), more dense "aussie" variants. By (from 1 to 4) Tiffany, Janet Whitington, Lawrence Hylton and Maite Etchevarne on iNaturalist.
References:
- Háva J. & Kalík V. 2005: Contribution to the Dermestes peruvianus species group from the Neotropical region (Coleoptera: Dermestidae). Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 5: 87-98. Link.
- Liu Z., Zhou YU-L., Szito A. & Ślipiński A. 2022: The Australian hide, larder and carpet beetles (Coleoptera: Dermestidae): A revision at the generic level. Annales Zoologici 72(4): 837-926. Link.
- Peacock E. R. 1993: Adults and larvae of hide, larder and carped beetles and their relatives (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) and of derodontid beetles (Coleoptera: Derodontidae). Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 5: 1-144. Link.
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