No, they are different species; the lateral tooth of the pronotum is also a little different. The specimen at right is a male of plumicornis, that at left is a female of another species (klugi?). What is its provenance?
Both come from the same village in Morogoro rural, Tanzania. One has to be cautious with an exact locality name though. It is so much more convenient to write the same locality for all beetles in a parcel... Unfortunately, it is difficult to see in the photo, but the pronotal tooth looks pretty similar in both specimens under microscope.
No problems concerning the labels: these insects usually have a very wide distribution. The specimens at the left is a female of Crossotus stypticus aethiops Distant, 1898.
Crossotus plumicornis, dimorphism?
Posted - 25/04/2011 : 22:09:38
