Even if Mrs Noah was not normally very fond of insects (did she shriek as a pair of cockroaches scuttled over her feet on their way into the Ark?) surely even she must have been impressed by the longhorn beetles that clambered aboard her husband's vessel.
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Inexplicably, there is no specific mention of them in the Bible's authoritative report (Genesis 6, 7 and 8) of how Noah's Ark saved all species from extinction - but we know that they were saved because today there are so many species of them alive and well.
Australia is especially blessed with them and a new book, Australian Longhorn Beetles - Volume 1, begins the long-overdue work of cataloguing, celebrating, describing and portraying Australia's species. Two more beetle-packed volumes will follow.
With the parochialism for which this column is legendary we bring you a picture of an exquisite species, Rhytiphora nigrovirens, which occurs in the ACT. There may be more than 200 species in the ACT. Black Mountain is especially rich with them but Rhytiphora nigrovirens haunts Namadgi National Park. The species name nigrovirens means that this beetle looks blackish-green.
Michael Preece, director of the Australian Biological Resources Study which has co-published the book with the CSIRO, says longhorn beetles were one of the most easily recognised groups of beetles "because the adult beetles have long antennae, that look like horns, which gives them their common name".
"They are found around the world and come in all sorts of sizes, shapes and colours – some even mimic stinging ants and wasps! Australian longhorn beetles vary in size from just 2mm to more than 90mm."
Australian Longhorn Beetles. Volume 1, by Drs Adam Slipinski and Hermes Escalona of the CSIRO's National Insect Collection in Canberra, is published by Canberra-based Australian Biological Resources Study and CSIRO Publishing. The book has just won the prestigious Whitley Award, presented by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales for excellence in Australian zoological publishing.
