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Photo#42600
flea beetle, side view - Asphaera lustrans

flea beetle, side view - Asphaera lustrans
Hidalgo County, Texas, USA
November 29, 1999
This critter certainly looks like a dead ringer for the photos currently listed as Asphaera lustrans. But the Guide page mentions that species as feeding on Scutellaria, which this one was not; the flora for our area does not even list that genus occurring in our county! So is this a very convincing mimic? Or does A. lustrans have a wider dietary range?

Images of this individual: tag all
flea beetle, side view - Asphaera lustrans flea beetle, dorsal view - Asphaera lustrans flea beetle, another side view - Asphaera lustrans flea beetle, facial view - Asphaera lustrans

I found one site
here listing it as hosting on Salix.

 
Thanks!
I will reassign this specimen to A. lustans, and I guess update the guide page too to add a few other food plants. I think this one was on Whitebrush (Aloysia gratissima), which seems to be popular with various different cerambycid and chrysomelid species around here.

Joshua S. Rose, Ph.D.
World Birding Center
Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park
joshua.rose_NO_SPAM@tpwd.state.tx.us
956-584-9156 x 236

 
I've been trying to find more info on the web -
unfortunately the UF page I had linked on the guide page no longer exists.

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