Jewel Beetles - Family Buprestidae

This page contains information and pictures about Jewel Beetles in Family Buprestidae that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.


Jewel Beetles are active in a hot day and readily fly under sunlight.

Jewel Beetles can normally be seen feeding nectar on flowers in bush during a sunny day. Some Jewel Beetles are leaves feeder. They ranged from small to very large size. Their body is elongated and flattened. They are brightly coloured and often have a metallic sheen which make their common name Jewel Beetles. The antenna are relatively short and not clubbed.

Jewel Beetles are active and ready to fly during daytime. They can be found feeding on native flowers especially Eucalyptus and Leptospermum flowers.


Oval tunnel - could be made by the Dark Blue Banksia Jewel Beetle.

Most species of Jewel Beetle larvae are borer in wood of living trees. Their have a small head, wide flattened thorax, narrow long body and legless. They make oval tunnel while Longicorn Beetle and Wood Moth larvae make round tunnel. Few of them live in root and a few are leave miner. Most of them have very long life cycle time.

There are four subfamilies of Jewel Beetles in Australia, Buprestinae, Agrilinae, Polycestinae and Chalcophorinae. We recorded two subfamilies in Brisbane so far.

Tea-tree

Leptospermum sp., Family Myrtaceae

Jewel Beetles like to feed on Tea-tree flowers. Wherever there is the blooming Tea-tree flowers, get closer to have a look. You may find different species of Jewel Beetles feeding on them.

Here we would like to thank Mark Hanlon for sending us email on the IDs of the jewel beetles and correcting some of our errors on this page.
Reference and Link:
1. Allen Sundholm's Buprestidae Home Page (We also like to thank Allen Sundholm advised some of the Jewel Beetles' ID in the page.)
2. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, pp 632.
3. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p216.
4. Jewel Beetles of Western Australia - K. Carnaby, Wilga WA, 1986.
5. BUPRESTIDAE Leach, 1815 - Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2001.
6. Beetles of South Australia, a guide to the Genera of, Part 4, E.G. Matthews, South Australia Museum, 1985.