Like many insect photographers I have been passionately attracted to the Dogbane Beetle for its striking, vari-hued metallic gleam on a surface so smooth that you can see yourself and surroundings reflected in it. I looked up dogbane, a milkweed relative, hoping thereby to find the Motherload of dogbane beetles. But the pen-and-ink drawings I found were useless to me.

Finally, it was the dogbane beetle itself that brought the plant identity to life for me. I spotted one of the beetles chewing on a leaf that oozed a milky white sap. No coincidence there. I looked around and soon noticed a dozen or more dogbane beetles in the vicinity, mostly on this plant species.