Orange-marked Black Leaf Beetle
Antennae
Ellura
Maroon Eboo Beetle
S2, dorsal
 
                      
Orange-marked Black Leaf Beetle (Ditropidus pulchellus)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Beetles (Coleoptera)
Family: Leaf Beetle (Chrysomelidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Orange-marked Black Leaf Beetle (Ditropidus pulchellus)
This Photo:     Ventral

Thank you Boris Büche for identifying and Martin Lagerwey & Nick Monaghan for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
~4mm long.
We suspected this might be Ditropidus pulchellus. Most images of D. pulchellus have a red pronotum though.
This one also seems to have a slightly different scutellum.
We were wondering if these differences were gender based. Nick suggested it could be a regional variation. Martin agreed and said "I would expect regional or genetic variation. Gender dimorphism is minimal in this species although pronotum colors do vary by gender in Cryptocephalinae including a few Ditropidus and a few Aporocera." Martin also said "There is nothing else close in the Victorian Museum collection."

Copyright © 2020-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 01-Nov-2020
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.