Orange-marked Black Leaf Beetle
Anterior
Orange-marked Black Leaf Beetle
Antennae
| Orange-marked Black Leaf Beetle Anterior | | Orange-marked Black Leaf Beetle Antennae | | ||
 | 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: | Face | ||||
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." | |||||
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