Prosopocera lactator
Prosopocera lactator dorsal and ventral views
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Infraorder:	Cucujiformia
Family:	Cerambycidae
Subfamily:	Lamiinae
Genus:	Prosopocera
Species:	P. lactator
Binomial name
Prosopocera lactator ( Fabricius, 1801)
Synonyms
Anoplostheta lactator (Fabricius) Dejean, 1835 Lamia lactator Fabricius, 1801 Lamia radiata Gory, 1835

Prosopocera lactator, the Turquoise Longhorn, is a species of flat-faced longhorn beetles in the subfamily Lamiinae.

Subspecies

• Prosopocera lactator lactator (Fabricius, 1801)
• Prosopocera lactator meridionalis Jordan, 1903
• Prosopocera lactator poggei Harold, 1878

Description

Prosopocera lactator can reach a length of about 23–37 millimetres (0.91–1.46 in). The colors and markings of these longhorn beetles are quite variable. Usually they are brown-colored, with large light greenish or whitish patches on the elytra and pronotum and turquoise leg markings. The coloration of said greenish-white patches derives from the orientation of three-dimensional photonic-crystal grains present in the scales. These beetles feed exclusively on Cashew ( Anacardium occidentale). Females lay their eggs in the stems and branches of the Buffalo Thorn ( Ziziphus mucronata).

Distribution

This species can be found in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

References

• Biolib
• Worldwide Cerambycoidea Photo Gallery
• Photographs from South Africa
• Jean-Franc¸ois Colomer, Priscilla Simonis, Annick Bay, Peter Cloetens, Heikki Suhonen, Marie Rassart, Cedric Vandenbem and Jean Pol Vigneron Photonic polycrystal in the greenish-white scales of the African longhorn beetle Prosopocera lactator
• Living Space