Tobacco slug beetle

Lema bilineata

Description:

Yellow striped handsome leaf beetle. Under foliage of weed canola on river side. This spotting discovered by RachaelB and located for me http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/112... I'm still not satisfied with either ID.

Habitat:

1/ Flea beetle; Agasicles hygrophila right profile, wrong thorax & elytra dimples. 2/ Leaf beetle; Prasocuris phellandrii wrong profile, right thorax color & dimples 3/ Calligrapha californica; wrong prothorax and hind tip of elytra

Notes:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/635045 http://bugguide.net/node/view/4520 http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2007/04/04/l... http://eol.org/pages/43477/entries/33569... http://www.flickr.com/photos/gillesgonth... http://www.texasento.net/Acalymma.htm

1 Species ID Suggestions

bayucca 11 years ago

Tobacco Slug Beetle

Tobacco slug beetle Tobacco slug beetle

5 Comments

bayucca 11 years ago

There is nothing about champion, it took me only about 5 minutes including check and recheck. So, 5 minutes of looking for an ID for a whole night of sweet dreams, I think that's quite a good deal, isn't it ;-)...! OK then: Sweet dreams of tobacco slug beetles!

MartinL 11 years ago

That's it Bayucca!!! I've not stopped searching for this insect ID but you get the award for champion IDer, and I get some sleep tonight. Thanks, you deserve another patch. It was found on Brassica which may seem odd, except both are exotic. Thanks for your suggestion Daniele - I was following that lead but they are feeding on native trees.

bayucca 11 years ago

This is obviously a new detected pest in Australia. You have also a native one: Lema trilineata which looks similar. Lema bilineata was introduced in Australia from South America:
http://www.padil.gov.au/pests-and-diseas...