A wide variety of insects visit the flowers of Bursaria spinosa, the most important pollinators of which appear to be beetles of several families. Common visitors recorded from field work around Armidale were jewel beetle species such as Curis splendens and Stigmodera inflata; longicorn beetles including Amphirhoe sloanei and Tropocalymma dimidiatum; scarab beetles; and tumbling flower beetles. Beetles and scoliid wasps all carried significant amounts of pollen. Other visitors such as flies and butterflies carried much lower amounts. The larvae of the jewel beetle species Astraeus crassus live in tunnels in dead and dying branches. Caterpillars which feed on Bursaria spinosa include Proselena annosana, two-ribbed arctiid (Palaeosia bicosta) and bark looper moth (Ectropis subtinctaria), while those of the clouded footman (Anestia ombrophanes) graze on algae and lichens which grow on the branches.
