For the identification of insects and other fauna and flora of South Africa.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Miscellaneous Beetles - Part 1

I am not sure if it because of the amount of rain we have had, but beetles have been very scarce here this summer so I was surprise to go out for a few hours to the dam and find a nice variety which I had not seen before.
I cannot find the name of this beetle but think it might belong to the Tenebrionidae family (Darkling beetles). What was unusual about it for me was the color.
Most plain colored beetles are either black or brown whereas this one was a reddish-orange. It was rather large, over 1 inch. Every time I touched it, it played dead and as soon as I put it down, it would scurry away as fast as its little legs would take it. :)
This one was tiny, about 4mm called a Spiny Leaf Beetle (Dicladispa) belonging to the Chrysomelidae family. The larvae are leaf miners and are well hidden within the leaves.
Can you guess what this is? It is the larvae of the Potato Ladybug (picture below).
They get their name from the fact that they lay their eggs on potato or tomato plants.

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