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Project Noah Nature School
Coleoptera
1cm to 1.5 cm it looks like some bowel-moving breakfast cereal stuck to a leaf. There is a creature at repose within it
This was in full sun on a very hot summer day in wasteland behind beach dunes.
I do not disturb my subjects if I can so I never took it apart to see what was inside but this is one the most fascinating things I have seen on a leaf. My imagination gave it architectural elements like it was some partially formed log house or something. Id so far by Martini. Tentative just to get it off the unknown list
Spotted on Nov 28, 2009
Submitted on Dec 7, 2012
4 Comments
martini, I have given this one a tentative id. It will be revisited is something turns up similar
Fascinating!
Those are amazing little structures. Thanks MartinL
Some beetles utilize their frass for protection. Here are two examples of weevils and leaf beetle larvae.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/805...
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/790...
Lacewing larvae do this too. I think your construction is a pupa of such a beetle. Most beetles drop to the ground to pupate but some stick to their leaves.