A species of longhorn beetle, Rosalia formosa (Saunders, 1839), a type of insect, falling under the Order: Coleoptera, Family: Cerambycidae, has been reported from Mizoram for the first time.
Amit Rana, principal author and researcher working in the position of Assistant Zoologist at the North Eastern Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Shillong and Lobeno Mozhui, co-author from the Department of Zoology, Nagaland University, Lumami after extended observations and detailed studying of the specimens, confirmed their findings and published the same in the latest edition of the international journal “Journal of Threatened Taxa” Volume 15 Number 12 (2023), dated December 26, 2023.
The two researchers had undertaken extensive taxonomic studies of the specimens collected from a forested interior region of Murlen in the Champhai District of Mizoram.
The specimens were collected during one of the surveys conducted by researchers from the Zoological Survey of India, North Eastern Regional Centre, Shillong. Interestingly, this specific species of longhorn beetle has been earlier reported from only four states in the northeast region.
This species has also been recorded from Nepal, China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Apart from Rosalia formosa (Saunders, 1839), just one other longhorn beetle species under this particular group, Rosalia, has been identified from Mizoram.
In addition, six species belonging to the group Rosalia have been documented to date from the whole of the northeast, with each species having a unique physical appearance.
The longhorn beetle Rosalia formosa (Saunders, 1839) is one of the most colourful beetles in its group. It has an elongated body appearance with the head being black in colour. There is the presence of a distinct pattern of two broad black bands running across the entire width of the body, these two bands are present towards the base and behind the middle region.
Moreover, there is also the presence of two oblique black spots occurring on the dorsal (back) as well as at the lateral (side) part, these two spots are notably placed between the two broad black bands on the rear region of the longhorn beetle’s body.
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Furthermore, Rana and Mozhui hold onto the fact that because of the rich abundant biodiversity that is prevalent in the region and that there is an existing diversity of the longhorn beetle species, future additional faunistic surveys can most definitely provide more information to the known existing species, in addition to the discovery of any new longhorn beetle species from Mizoram.
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