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Photo#726952
Yellow beetle - Trirhabda
Copyright © 2012 Lon Brehmer and Enriqueta Flores-Guevara

Yellow beetle - Trirhabda

Small stream between Stratton and Alder Washes, Coronado NF, Old Mt. Lemmon Road, S of Oracle, Pima County, Arizona, USA
September 13, 2012
Santa Catalina Mtns; another individual with the same markings had less translucent elytrons with 2 white thin longitudinal lines down each elytron.

Images of this individual: tag all
Yellow beetle - Trirhabda Yellow beetle - Trirhabda
tag · login or register to post comments
Contributed by Lon Brehmer and Enriqueta Flores-Guevara on 30 November, 2012 - 3:01pm

Comments

Interesting
This one keys (in both Hogue(1) and Wilcox) to a terminal couplet choice of T. eriodictyonis or T. schwarzi, and though the keys characters get subtle and one wonders where the fuzzy boundaries are between opposing character states for the two species...it seems to me this would go best to T. schwarzi.

Some reasons why: relatively course punctation on pronotum; no trace of sutural or lateral vittae;...and the host plant.

The plant here is definitely not an Eriodictyon, but it could very well be a species of Brickellia, which is the host plant genus for T. schwarzi. Here's a Brickellia webpage with thumbnails leading to pictures & range maps for a number of Southwest species, including many around the Tucson area. Most Brickellia species have larger, more triangular leaves (with longer petioles) than those in the photo here. But Brickellia leaves do become smaller and bract-like near the terminal inflorescences, which is where this beetle appears to be here. And some species have smaller, rounder, more densely pubescent leaves. For instance it might be something like B. desertorum?

The plant in the photo could be something else too...the beetle could have made a short exploratory flight and landed on some non-host plant. Trirhabda aren't *always* on their host plant...just almost always:-). But if there at least are Brickellia growing nearby (and no Eriodictyon) that would clinch the (already probable) choice of T. schwarzi over T. eriodictyonis here.
… Aaron Schusteff, 1 December, 2012 - 4:09am login or register to post comments

 
Thank you Aaron
I've looked through the Brickellia webpage and some of my books and the other photos from the same place. I still cannot place the plant this beetle was on, but it doesn't look like it will fit any of the Brickellia plants I could compare it with (but I could very easily be wrong). There were some yellow flowers with other beetles very close by which look consistent with Brickellia brachyphylla, but then yellow flowers are always a challenge for me. I will post another photo of an different individual of the same species on the same plant (I can't figure out how to place a photo in the comment). Thank you so much for your help!
… Lon Brehmer and Enriqueta Flores-Guevara, 1 December, 2012 - 11:10am login or register to post comments

 
You're welcome, Lon
Always enjoy trying to solve bug and plant ID puzzles. And Trirhabda has a special place in my heart, since it's the first genus I became interested in enough to actually photograph and post on a web site called BugGuide a few years ago :-)

If you find other photos that show clear features of the plant here (i.e. flowers, leaves, general habit & size), but they don't have a bug you want to post, you could email them to me and I could have a better chance of figuring out an ID. (I'm more of a botanist than an entomologist :-) And the photos don't need to be compositional masterpieces...just ones that hopefully can show diagnostic features.
… Aaron Schusteff, 1 December, 2012 - 11:32am login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
… v belov, 30 November, 2012 - 3:39pm login or register to post comments

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