Leaf Beetle? - Physonota helianthi

Moved

Moved from Horsemint Tortoise Beetle.

… v belov, 25 November, 2013 - 8:42am

I believe it is Physonota hel

I believe it is Physonota helianthi.

… MJ Hatfield, 11 November, 2006 - 8:31am

Awesome creature.

I bet these guys can vacuum seal themselves to a leaf when attacked.

… Jeff Hole, 29 August, 2006 - 9:21pm

We have a couple of similar images

in the guide under the Tortoise beetles, but unfortunately not yet completely identified.

and your

… john and jane balaban, 29 August, 2006 - 4:31pm

Gotta be....

Physonota species, likely P. unipunctata (just 5 NA species), see this page at Insects of Cedar Creek. Arnett (1) states the larvae of P. unipunctata are "oddly shaped slimy creatures", which fits the photo of the associated larva. Hostplants are rosin-weed (Asteraceae: genus Silphium) or Monarda.

We have a guide page for genus, with a couple of species identified. This looks like ICE's photo of P. unipunctata--I'll do a guide for the species--done.

… Cotinis, 29 August, 2006 - 11:27pm

Thanks.

… brian flaig, 30 August, 2006 - 9:17am

Moved to guide, unlinked

I moved these to the guide page. I have unlinked the images, since they are not of the same individual beetle--I did insert a thumbnail to show the association.

… Cotinis, 30 August, 2006 - 1:11pm

Are These Identified Correctly?

Knowing nothing about beetles, I was nevertheless intrigued by the significantly different appearance of both the adults and larvae presented on the species page and decided to look at the available online references. I doubt that any of the photos shown on the species page can be confidently assigned to Physonota unipunctata IF the larvae associated with them are construed to be the sampe species.

Looking at this source for Physonota helianthi I see the possibility that it might be the species in the photo shown above.

Looking at the same info source for Physonata unipunctata I think it might be possible that the black adult here on BG.N from Wisconsin might be a female of this species.

However, the only photo of larva that I have found doesn't come close to matching the photos here at BG.N filed under this species.

Might it be better to move these photos to the genus or subfamily level?

… Bob Patterson, 15 September, 2006 - 2:05pm

I'm not positive that what I

I'm not positive that what I tentatively IDed as the larve is, but it seemed to be a close fit. The only other mature leaf beetle that it could be was the gold-green P. helianthi. The true larva of these guys is a slug-like creature that waves it's slimy looking tail when threatened. This looked to me to be the almost complete transformation of larva to adult. Can you tell I'm not much of a biologist, but mostly a photographer? Thought so.

By the way both of these leaf beetles, this one and P. helianthi, were on Maximillian sunflower.

… brian flaig, 15 September, 2006 - 3:09pm