Who is mimicing who?

Right Metaxymorpha immitator and left Metaxymorpha greyi both are from subtropical rainforests of northern NSW and southern QLD. Another example of another mimicing group.

There is also a Castiarina rayclarkei is mimicing Calodema regale in the same areas in northern NSW and Southern QLD but I still haven't found it yet. That's so rare only a few specimens were ever found one year on one tree.

Aren't these _related_ species/genera? Why do you use word "mimicking"?

Rashduo, these are different Genera , Lucanidae who says this is gloriosa group , how do you know who is mimicking who ?Who says this is gloriosa group ?
Just because Metaxymorpha gloriosa was discovered before Calodema rubrimarginatum doesn`t mean it is the sp all the others mimick .Maybe they mimick C.rubrimarginatum who can say ?Or do they mimick Castiarina rollei.
I collected the Type specimen of Calodema rubrimaginatum , so who is to say which species mimicks which ?? There are other Castiarina which have these colours , I think these are just warning colours bright colours that wasps also display.Many Australian Buprestids have a basic colour of yellow to start with.
Calodema rubrimaginatum has a very limited distribrution due to its host plant around the Julaten area , Metaxymoprpha gloriosa`s host plant I also discovered Goia lasionura it has a wide distribution like the species.As for Castiarina clarki go to its distribution area and hang a red bucket up in the canopy and you might be surprised .I shared this collection tecnique with the guy C.clarki was named after many years ago , when I asked the collector of C.clarki did you ever collect any Buprestidae with this type of bucket trap trap I told you about , he said no I caught no Buprestids , very funny statment , several weeks later a couple of beetle collectors came along the road of the border ranges in NSW and here was the collector of C.clarki pulling up red buckets into the canopy of the rainforest on a string , yet he anounces he collected no Buprestids like this ,all of a sudden Metaxymorpha imitator is discovered and many collectors around the world have it .The colour red is a great attractant the the Metatxymorpha and Calodema group also Castiarina rollei and C.erubescens.I think many species are yet to be discovered using red lures to attract them Calodema plebeia is also attracted to the colour red , yet it mimicks none of the above species .Before we can make too many profound statements on Buprestidids mimicking each other more research needs to be done.
A bit more thought needs to be put into some comments presented some times by collectors that haven`t even collected the specis they comment about.

I think till you find a reason for mimicking or better definitive proof (poison; a count on the number of beetles eaten; how well it can be spotted in the surrounding) one should be careful stating that "mimicking' happens. Simply looking like other beetle who is not protected in some way from predators doesn't count.

There're two pages just on Lycid mimics Castiarina from " Castiarina Australia's richest jewel beetle genus" by Shelley Barker. So Castiarina can only be the mimicking one and not the other way around. I noted something is going on here from my years of collocting in the fields, I didn't just jump to conclusion by looking at them. This is my area of interests and there for I spend more time thinking on this subject than most other people.

Another perfect example is how the Doliops is mimicking Pachyrrhynchus in Philippines. I don't think Pachyrrhynchus is poisonous, so what dose the Doliops gain from mimicking Pachyrrhynchus? I spent a lot of time thinking about it and the only conclusion is the one that is doing the mimicking is trying to gain protection of safety in numbers from another more common sp. The ratio with Doliops to Pachyrrhynchus is between 1:50 to 1:200 depending on the sp. So Doliops is the one gaining by mimicking Pachyrrhynchus.

Calodema rubrimarginata is only from a very small area calls Rex Ranges in far northern QLD.

Try eating a Pachyrrhynchus weevil, or if your not that brave, just try stick a pin in one.

You will quickly find, that because of their fused and very thick elytra that they are very hard to chew, or puncture!

Doliops on the other hand are very soft in comparison, so it make a lot of sense to mimic the weevil and coexist.

IMHO Tim