Onymacris bicolor (Haag-Rutenberg 1875) - Tuberculate Namib Darkling
Onymacris bicolor, the Tuberculate Namib Darkling, is one of the white species in the Northern Namib.
White colouration is unusual among beetles in general and in the family Tenebrionidae in particular. This remarkable phenomenon is known only in a few species from the northern Namib. The optical whiteness is neither a pigment nor a wax but reflection involving microscopic 'bubbles' within the surface of the beetle's elytra. Onymacris spp are fast-running diurnal species and are restricted to loose sand such as hummocks, dry riverbeds, and dune fields.
Diagnosis: Lateral margin of pronotum indistinct, at most indicated by a faint, impressed line; elytra white, with low, flattened tubercles.
Original description in:
Haag-Rutenberg, G.J. 1875. Beiträge zur näheren Kenntniss einiger Gruppen aus der Familie der Tenebrioniden. Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 19(7): 1-56
https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/view/bsb11323431?page=485
Elongated, black, shiny. Elytra yellow or yellow-white. Head and thorax shiny, unpunctuated. Elytra elongate, depressed above, serially tuberculate. Legs elongated, with long spines and claws, black-brown.
Illustrated in:
Lamb T, Marais E, Bond JE (2017) A second locality for the Namib darkling beetle Onymacris brainei (Tenebrionidae, Coleoptera) and first report on its molecular phylogenetic placement. ZooKeys 687: 63-72. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.687.13660
https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/13660/zoom/fig/11/
Distribution in Namibia: South of the Cunene River, along the Skeleton coast.
(Key to Onymacris spp and distribution maps in: Penrith, ML. 1984. New taxa of Onymacris Allard, and relationships within the genus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA00411752_156)
iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/196506278
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