Spotty beetle

Identification - Apomecyna nigritarsis.

Spotted this interesting beetle this morning. It would have been walked passed a year ago as just a boring bug. But when you stop and look at the interesting livery of spots and the antennae seemingly growing out of the eye, it is definitely worth recording.

As usual, ID was always going to be a problem. Nothing even close in the Indonesian web site - I don't know why I bother with FOBI, slower than AOL and hardly ever find what I am looking for. Must be a different Indonesia to the one I am living in.

I found something close in Noah, which at least gave me a family name. Back to Google and found a specialized site in the middle of a discussion of this particular beetle. Very cool, I shall now have to join and show them my images. So what seemed like a boring beetle, actually has a lot of interest in the beetle 'trainspotter' society.

I am getting feedback from my symbiotic spider/fly shot. One guy, Dr D. E. Hill wants me to write a scientific document to publish in 'PECKHAMIA', a specialized jumping spider site. Another guy wants more information on the fly for his doctorate, but no one is throwing any money at me to catch.

I will help the student with his doctorate, but the other site will have to wait, at least until I get more information for a more professional write-up. I don't even have a species name for the spider or the fly, that is just not professional. Besides, I don't need fame - I need money!

Dave