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Project Noah Nature School
Paropsisterna sp.
A pair of small brown tortoise leaf beetles with a complex pattern of lighter bands on the elytra.
On small eucalyptus.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25401497@N0... http://www.flickr.com/photos/25401497@N0...
Spotted on Jan 11, 2014
Submitted on Jan 11, 2014
9 Comments
Thanks James.
Thanks Juan.
Thanks Mark.
I expect that for us field naturalists without microscopes and scalpels that visual cues like shape and color is the only way to attempt ID's and this data is still very useful.
Interesting comments Juan and Martin.
jaja, yes Martin, sounds funny but its the reality.
I love these, how neat.
Our local expert said that dissections are needed for firm ID's. Colors of original type specimens in museums have all faded and to forget definitive ID's on the basis of color patterns - they are often mimicking each other.
We (Australia) have 750 species in Chrysomelidae but it may actually be double, or half.
Yes Martin, determining species in these beetles is hard. I remember a case five years ago. A Smithsonian scientist discovered five Leaf beetle colorations previously reported as different species were actually only one.
I thin this is a darker form of the next specimen http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/137...
Yes, I agree. But identifying Eucalyptus is one of my weaknesses, even with the book, they can be tricky.
All on eucalyptus too. Maybe we should determine E species as well?