Author Topic: Colourful beetle  (Read 848 times)

pat

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Colourful beetle
« on: February 06, 2021, 08:55:28 PM »
Would our resident entomologist happen to know what sort of beetle this is? It was photographed in Colombia.

Calilasseia

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Re: Colourful beetle
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2021, 03:37:39 PM »
Taking that one to species level is a job for the Natural History Museum.

Though I've determined that it's a member of the Family Chrysomelidae, which should narrow the search down to about, oh, 3,000 species :)
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Calilasseia

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Re: Colourful beetle
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2021, 03:45:23 PM »
Turns out the Coleoptera specialists at the Natural History Museum have their own Facebook page: you can visit it here.

Post the photo there and see what their experts make of it.
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pat

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Re: Colourful beetle
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2021, 06:56:11 PM »
I realize that identifying an insect is a somewhat more difficult task than identifying a bird  ;D  but I'll give that page a try. Thanks for the link.

pat

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Re: Colourful beetle
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2021, 07:27:55 AM »
Result! It's been identified as aspicela scutata.

Calilasseia

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Re: Colourful beetle
« Reply #5 on: February 13, 2021, 01:10:33 AM »
Bingo. Knew those people would have the answer.

Nice to know I was right on the money with the Family Chrysomelidae too ... :)

Oh, and there are several photos of this species showing teneral adults that have only recently emerged from the pupa, with washed out colours. They develop that intense acrylic blue colour some hours later.
Remember: if the world's bees disappear, we become extinct with them ...