Air Potato Leaf Beetle

Description:

Adult and a few larvae. The larvae are bulbous and I almost mistook them for pupae until I saw their heads. They were busy skeletonizing the invasive air potato plants. The beetles were introduced after air potatoes became invasive in Florida; they cannot complete their life cycle without the air potato vines so they are an important part of the effort to exterminate air potatoes from our ecosystem.

Habitat:

Air potato plant in mixed habitat woods