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Photo#130299
Stiretrus sp.? - Zicrona americana

Stiretrus sp.? - Zicrona americana
Samuel P. Taylor State Park, Marin County, California, USA
July 22, 2007
Size: .5 cm
These were eating alder leaves down to lace veins.

Moved
Moved from Zicrona caerulea.

No they weren't!
These are the good guys! They prey on the insects that 'do' defoliate alder: Altica flea beetles. These are stink bugs, but a predatory species: Zicrona caerulea.

 
Zicrona caerulea
Thanks! It's not in California Insects.
Does the flea beetle look like this one? It has only a genus. http://bugguide.net/node/view/97925#118786

Looking further, I found this comment on bugguide which would seem to say it wouldn't be cerulea in CA:
"It is a specimen of Stiretrus anchorago. There are two species of Zicrona that do occur in North America, but one of them (americana) is western in distribution, and the other (caerulea) occurs only in the northeastern states."
… Hannah Nendick-Mason, 10 October, 2006 - 11:59am
And my larvae don't have the same pattern as the cerulea in that photo.

 
News to me.
Ok, well, I do trust Hannah to know what she is talking about. My Oregon specimens were, back in the 70s, identified by an expert as Z. caerulea, but perhaps the classification changed. I guarantee that is the genus at least.

 
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Eric!
Actually in the comment in question, I was quoting an e-mail response I got from Dr David Rider when trying to identify an all-blue Stiretrus. He's certainly an authority on this group, but I don't have any other information to share about this genus. You can see the comment in context on this image:


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