Tortoise Beetle

Description:

Coleoptera; Chrysomelidae; Cassidinae; Notosacanthini; Notosacantha sp. cf. dorsalis Waterhouse, 1877. This Tortoise Beetle looks like it is encrusted with some terrible skin infection. It also appears to have fissures or cracks all over its elytra, which appear to be wet and leaking haemolymph (fluid which is analogous to blood in invertibrates). Also, it was not moving. So, I didn't need to be a genius to realise that it was dead. I normally would not take photos of any dead creatures, but I somehow felt compelled to take one or two pictures. Then, to make sure that it was dead, I picked up a little twig and turned it over. The underside looked a little more intact than the dorsal area, but no signs of life. Why should there be ? It was dead, but I took one photo of the underside, thinking maybe I could identify it and be on the lookout for a live one going forward. I flipped it over so that it was right-side-up again and threw away the little twig. I did not want any infections from this poor dead creature. Almost immediately, it opened its elytra and flew off into the forest. That was in June, 2016 and I was unable to identify this beetle in any meaningful way until this year when I downloaded a Pdf of an article in Australian Entomologist, December, 2021 issue. On page 337, Figs. 9 & 10 look exactly like my pictures in every detail. Those terrible features that I mentioned on the back of this beetle are more properly called "elytral tubercles" and are apparently completely normal in the physiology of this creature.

Habitat:

This Tortoise Beetle was spotted on roadside foliage during one of my little "bug hunting expeditions". In the hills a kilometre or two from our house where the narrow road is bordered by the remnants of rain forest which was mostly cut down many years ago to clear land for farming.

Notes:

Link to the Pdf referred to above - https://www.researchgate.net/publication...