tiny beetle - chrysomelid? - Cryptocephalus tinctus

Moved

… Mike Quinn, 27 August, 2008 - 9:14am

Thanks, Mike and John

John, I'm impressed by your dedictation to getting this classified right!

… Hannah Nendick-Mason, 27 August, 2008 - 10:35am

Hannah, I just love chrysomel

Hannah, I just love chrysomelids and have been studying and collecting them for decades. I grew up in Florida which is a great place to study them as there are a large number of species there and the genus Cryptocephaus is very well represented there (as is Arizona I'm starting to notice). It helps to have specimens to compare so I lucked out on this photo.

… John Randall Watts, 30 August, 2008 - 3:29pm

Moved

Moved from Cryptocephalus.

… Mike Quinn, 10 August, 2008 - 5:14am

Cryptocephalus tinctus

… John Randall Watts, 8 July, 2008 - 11:23pm

C. tinctus not confirmed from Florida

Am moving to lateritius...

… Mike Quinn, 10 August, 2008 - 5:11am

I checked my specimens of C.

I checked my specimens of C. lateritius (15) and all have extremely confused and double punctured striae. This specimen has mostly distinct and single punctured striae and that is what lead me to call it C. tinctus. What also leads me to believe this is not lateritius is the coloration (lighter than what I've seen) and the time of year it was found. All of my specimens of lateritius are from December, when they are most likely to occur as they are oak bud mimics.

… John Randall Watts, 25 August, 2008 - 7:24pm

I also looked at the two spec

I also looked at the two specimens of tinctus I have from Florida (Zellwood and Archibald Biological Station) and they definitely can be separated by the distinct strial rows. You don't even need magnification to see this. Like lateritius though they are fall/winter collected which suggests that they too are oak bud mimics. So I have no doubt this is a picture of C. tinctus.

… John Randall Watts, 27 August, 2008 - 8:29am

But what about the strial row

But what about the strial rows being mostly entire instead of largely confused or of double rows? The two species are close that is for sure.

… John Randall Watts, 25 August, 2008 - 11:07am

Moved

Moved from Cryptocephalini.

Det. per Ed Riley:

Cryptocephalus lateritius Newman or Cryptocephalus falli Schöller

Mike

… Mike Quinn, 20 June, 2007 - 12:50pm

leaf beetle

It looks a lot like my image here http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/okwild/misc/lfbeet.html
of Crytocephalus tinctus.
But this is just a guess.

… Charles Schurch Lewallen, 10 September, 2005 - 9:00pm

Yes, although the stripes are more pronounced on this one

- I think you're right as to genus. Nearctica lists 74 Cryptocephalus spp. so perhaps mine is one of the others.

… Hannah Nendick-Mason, 11 September, 2005 - 2:00am