Insect or Invertebrates Identification

[corotauria]

Have a few beetles from Daan Viljoen (april 2022).
Any ideas on species / genus / family?

[Richprins]

Can you remember the sizes?

[corotauria]

No, not really - not accurate enough anyway.
The ant in 2nd photo give away some indication on size though?

[Lisbeth]

Try to have a look here: viewtopic.php?p=141921#p141921 There are lots of pics and descriptions

[corotauria]

Great overview. I will take a look, but that will take a while. If I find them I will let you know.

[Lisbeth]

[corotauria]

I come to the conclusion that there are just to many look-a-likes and I just do not know enough about them to get a positive ID on those beetles.

Through iNaturalist I have received the following ID's to subfamily-level:
1) Dynastinae spec.
2) Melolonthinae spec.
Does anyone feel confident to get a step deeper to genus or even species level? Or a encyclopedia with the differences between the different species that can bring me closer...?

I did find a species-list of the species that occur in Namibia:
1) Dynastinae in Namibia: https://biodiversity.org.na/taxondisplay.php?nr=3630
2) Melolonthinae in Namibia: https://www.biodiversity.org.na/taxondi ... hp?nr=3631

Thanks again!

[Lisbeth]

I am sorry that we could not help you more

[corotauria]

Difficult species group...

Maybe a good time to shift to some moths...?
I have a few Id-ed already, a few I am not sure on a whole series of moths I have to do. I will put them one at the time so I be able to do some research on my own aswell. Pics still from Daan Viljoen, Namibia (april 2022).



I think Patania/Pleuroptya balteata, although I can't find any other records from Namibia so far.
It also could be Botyodes diniasalis, which does occur in Namibia according to africanmoths.com, but the other photo's I find on the net doesn't completely fit the bill (with some distinctive spots on the forewing).

Does anyone have experience with these species?

[Lisbeth]

One of our members, "Klipspringer", is our expert, but I have not seen her around lately, maybe on holiday