Beetles - Chrysochus auratus

Moved

to species page.

… Jim McClarin, 15 July, 2006 - 7:44pm

Dogbane beetles

Dogbane beetles, Chrysochus auratus. Looks like they're on a dogbane leaf, too.

… Patrick Alexander, 15 July, 2006 - 5:46pm

Thanks

I don't know plants. I thought that was some kind of milkweed (the leaves oozed something milky when I broke one off).

… Cliff Bernzweig, 15 July, 2006 - 6:59pm

Well...

Milkweeds and dogbanes are in the same family, and both have milky sap. So you were certainly thinking in the right direction.

Patrick Alexander

… Patrick Alexander, 15 July, 2006 - 7:13pm

Milkweed (Asclepidaeae) and dogbane (Apocynaceae) are in families that are very closely related.

… Steve Pelikan, 15 July, 2006 - 7:22pm

Used to be...

Asclepiadaceae and Apocynaceae have been synonymized. Now they're both Apocynaceae. See the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/) for instance. Basically, Apocynaceae turned out to be a paraphyletic basal grade relative to the more derived genera in Asclepiadaceae, so the cladists couldn't stand it and had to lump them.

… Patrick Alexander, 15 July, 2006 - 7:31pm