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Project Noah Nature School
Paropsisterna sp
Bright candy pink leaf beetles on a young gum tree. The pin and green elytra perfectly matched the colour of the stem galls on which I found this beetle (Pic 1) - ? significance. Pic 2 shows frass extruding out of the rear-end. One of the beetles showed two black marks on the posterior part of the head which is usually hidden under the pronotum (Pic 3). A smaller and paler beetle was also seen running around the leaves ? juvenile. The last two photos are that of eggs. The beetle eggs appeared to be laid loosely in sets of two and where fixed to the leaf at either end the leaf surface seems retracted causing shallow pitting on the other side of leaf (Pic 4)
Spotted several of these on a young Eucalyptus tree - ? species
This spotting was inspired by martinl who kindly notified us of the location for these gorgeous beetles. We were lucky to see several and a lot of action. My following spotting will be larvae of these beetles. Did not spot any other species of leaf beetle on the gum trees there. Martin's spotting: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/430... Mark Ridgway's spotting: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/437... The species is yet to be named... Family: Chyrsomelidae Subfamily: Chrysomelinae
Spotted on Oct 11, 2013
Submitted on Oct 12, 2013
5 Comments
Thanks Lauren. This one was special - amazing camouflage!
Yes Lauren it's hard for us to imagine gum trees not covered with little creatures. I've been into extensive forests of eucalyptus in other countries and they are almost like deserts with zero wildlife. No wonder they become weeds elsewhere. Same goes for everything I guess. Monterey pine is officiallya weed here.
Great series Leuba! Wonderful camouflage. Mexico has so many Eucalyptus trees and never any insects at all on them :(
I recognise these guys. I like the eyebrows. It seems that P. variicollis always has dark ventral body and legs and these are possibly P. obovata . We are going to have to flip them over from now.
Excellent colour match to those galls !! They must be friends.