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Photo#152067
Oct Beetle - Calligrapha bidenticola

Oct Beetle - Calligrapha bidenticola
Jim Thorpe, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, USA
October 31, 2006
Size: 1/3 inch
I had "lost" these photos but found them yesterday.

Images of this individual: tag all
Oct Beetle - Calligrapha bidenticola Oct Beetle - Calligrapha bidenticola

Moved tentatively per the following comment of S.M. Clark:
"It is very hard to tell from the angles provided, but I am guessing that this is Calligrapha bidenticola."

Moved from Ragweed Leaf Beetle.

Moved
Moved from Zygogramma.

Check out Zygogramma
in the guide here

 
Thank-you! That looks just li
Thank-you! That looks just like it! ^__^

 
Too bad we don't have them
sorted to species yet.

 
Zygogramma suturalis
a lot of them are, like this one, the common species Zygogramma suturalis

 
We are hesitant to move images
from the genus page unless they are clearly identified by an expert such as yourself. Most of the images on the genus page that look like suturalis do not have a clean ID and many have conflicting info with C. lunata. If you tell us which ones are really suturalis we will move them to the species page.

 
problamatic mimics
I think all suturalis type beetles in Zygogramma now will prove to be Z. suturalis in the long run. We should however get some identified (museum)specimens of Calligrapha lunata and also people should collect the specimen and have a look at the tarsal claws for confirmation of their species. This is the best way to seperate them. Both species seem to be variable and overlap in most characters and occur on the same hostplant. C. lunata being the bigger and rarer species.
compare these descriptions:
Calligrapha lunata
Broadly oval, convex. Head, prothorax, and venter brown, alutaceous. Elytra yellow with three broad dark brown vittae, sutural vitta extending from base to apex or just before apex, its width of 2 interstrial spaces per elytron; 2nd interstrial space not reaching base and emarginate there between it and first interstrial space; lateral vittae neither touching base nor reaching apex but occasionally subapically confluent with sutural vitta, its width from distinct 3rd stria laterad to about indistinct 8th, being laterally emarginate at 1/2 the elytral length. Length 6.5-7.4 mm. Width 4.4-4.7 mm.

Zygogramma suturalis
Oval, strongly convex. Head and pronotum brown to dark brown, sparsely irregularly punctate. Elytra yellow with common sutural vitta brown to second row of strial punctures and with brown lateral vittae from 3rd to about 7th striae, 7th medially notched on lateral margin. Elytral epiplurae pale anteriorly but posteriorly brown usually about 1/2 elytral length. Length 5.1-6.6 mm. Width 3.9-4.2 mm.

The characters mentioned in some earlier comments on the margin of the lateral vitta is described here as medially notched for suturalis and emarginate at halve the elytral length for lunata (what is the difference if any). The specimens now in the guide under lunata donĀ“t have this emargination or notch (and are identified for that character). So this is variable too.

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