red-shouldered leaf beetle - Saxinis deserticola

Moved

Moved from Saxinis.

… tom murray, 30 August, 2008 - 9:15am

Keys out to S. deserticola de

Keys out to S. deserticola deserticola although only ssp mojavenis is listed from California.

… John Randall Watts, 30 August, 2008 - 9:09am

key characters

Great your getting these to species John. What are the characters to look for distinguishing Saxinis saucia from this species?

… Rob Westerduijn, 30 August, 2008 - 5:31pm

The area in the key that dete

The area in the key that determines whether it runs to deserticola or saucia gives the following choices: basal margin of the elytra conspicously raised above the plane of the elytra (saucia and allies) or basal margin of elytra not hypertrophied and raised over the plane of the elytra(deserticola and allies). It would have been nice to have more than one photo but it doesn't look to have the first choice (the epaulet does not count in determining the character) and the number of species in the region is small so by process of elimination....

… John Randall Watts, 2 September, 2008 - 6:07pm

Nice info.

Do you mind saying what key you are using? I can't find any keys, I even checked Hatch and Canadian Beetles.

… Glen Forister, 15 July, 2022 - 1:49pm

How accurate is this feature?

The photos of both of these species look the same to me in this feature, unless I misunderstood.

For instance this saucia does not look raised?

… James Bailey, 25 June, 2015 - 8:55pm

hard to tell

to me it looks the same as this one here only from a slightly different angle or do you see a difference

… Rob Westerduijn, 3 September, 2008 - 4:53pm

Thanks Rob

Moved from Babia. I'll stick with the genus level id for now.

… tom murray, 14 May, 2007 - 5:29pm

maybe Saxinis saucia

It`s difficult to identify leafbeetles from California. There is little info on the web. This could well be Saxinis saucia (montane western United States). Compare here: http://www.ent.orst.edu/moldenka/Chrysomelids/chryso.html
Babia quadriguttata does not occur in California, but there is Babia tetraspilota and two more species in Saxinis to exclude. All without any pictures on the web

… Rob Westerduijn, 14 May, 2007 - 12:23pm

Reminds us of

Babia quadriguttata, in the guide here, but we don't know if it's in California and besides there are so many leaf beetles, there are probably two dozen that look like this :(

… john and jane balaban, 9 July, 2006 - 1:33pm

I agree on Babia

I also think it is Babia quadriguttata or at least the tribe clytrini

… Rob Westerduijn, 12 August, 2006 - 3:59pm

Babia

Thanks for the second opinion. I'll place it in the genus page.

… tom murray, 12 August, 2006 - 4:20pm

I looked at that one too

This one seems more glossy, and doesn't have the orange spots on the posterior.

… tom murray, 9 July, 2006 - 2:57pm