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Photo#34060
Galerucella nymphaeae - Trirhabda convergens

Galerucella nymphaeae - Trirhabda convergens
Wagner Natural Area, Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada
August 27, 2005
I believe that I have identified this correctly, although I am open to any other suggestions. The common name I found is waterlily leaf beetle, and it does seem to feed extensively on waterlilies and other aquatic plants. There is some indication that the North American populations are actually a different species from European populations. Assuming that my identifiction is correct, this will need a new guide page.

Moved
Moved from Trirhabda.

Species ID
Carefully cross-referencing the keys and descriptions in Blake (1931), Wilcox(1)(1965), and Hogue(2)(1970)...this goes to Trirhabda convergens.

According to Hogue(2)(1970), T. convergens is a somewhat variable species with forms that can have elytra which are: green, blue or bronze in color; can be either vittate or unicolorous; and are densely clothed with short recurved hairs. The fairly large pronotal spots, and broad occipital plaga, and the subequal 3rd and 5th antennal segment all agree with the key and description of T. convergens, and all three references include Alberta in its range.

And as mentioned by John below, it appears to be on leaves of Solidago, which is the host plant for T. convergens...and S. canadensis is on plant lists for Wagner Natural Area (e.g. see pg. 10 at this link).

Plant...
...on which the beetle is located appears to be a goldenrod (Solidago) of some kind; a list of over 300 vascular plants in the Wagner Natural Area describes Canada Goldenrod (S. canadensis) as the only Solidago species in the preserve, common in grassland and edge habitats.

Moved
Moved from Purple loosestrife Beetles.
Colour typical for Trirhabda.

Handsome beetle
I got some nice waterlily moth pix this summer with UV lights at the pond's edge, but I wanted to get out to the lilypads to see what else lived on them. Maybe next summer...

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