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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Polyphaga » Series Cucujiformia » Longhorn and Leaf Beetles (Chrysomeloidea) » Leaf Beetles (Chrysomelidae) » Chrysomelinae » Chrysomelini » Doryphorina » Labidomera » Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle (Labidomera clivicollis)
Photo#8047
Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetles - Labidomera clivicollis
Copyright © 2004 Cotinis

Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetles - Labidomera clivicollis
Durham County, North Carolina, USA
September 24, 2004
At one point, I had perhaps 75 of these on three cultivated Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata. The had mostly reduced the plants to skeletons, and aggregated under the few remaining leaves. A few days later, the last leaves were gone, and the beetles had dispersed--I am guessing to overwinter somewhere.
Contributed by Cotinis on 18 October, 2004 - 5:49am

What a neat aggregation pictu
What a neat aggregation picture!

Swamp Milkweed is a common plant around here. I see these beetles, but always singly, or at most a couple on a plant. Interesting to see them massed.

--Stephen

Stephen Cresswell
Buckhannon, WV
www.stephencresswell.com
… Stephen_WV, 18 October, 2004 - 5:12pm

Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetles
I had both Asclepias tuberosa and Asclepias curassavica infested with these beetles, and after they stripped the plants of leaves, began eating the bark off several branches. I found several generations of grubs on both plants.
… Stacey, 18 October, 2004 - 7:15am

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