This 8mm long brownish scarab beetle is the Asiatic garden beetle (Maladera castanea). It is native to East Asia, but has established itself through most of the eastern United States as well. (Of interesting note is that it took nearly 100 years from first being spotted in New York to make its way down to…
Tag: beetle
Calligrapha Beetle
Why is there not more written about this family of darling little beetles? Something like 80 species and subspecies of leaf beetles in the genus Calligrapha roam from Canada to Argentina, each one uniquely striped, splashed, or spotted black against a vividly colored, often red, green, or gold, background. They are sometimes pestiferous and their…
Sri Lankan Weevil
This diminutive Muppet is, unfortunately, an exotic, invasive pest which arrived in Florida around the year 2000 and is quietly eating its way through native, ornamental, vegetable and fruit plants. The adults eat the leaves; the larvae eat the root systems. Alas! Everything cute is terrible and evil. The Sri Lankan weevil (either Myllocerus undecimpustulatus…
Whitefringed Weevil
The whitefringed beetle, or whitefringed weevil, Naupactus leucoloma, is originally from South America but can now be found across the southern US, Australia, and South Africa. They are a type of weevil with a broad, down-pointing snout. Adults are relatively large for a weevil, around 12 mm long. N. peregrinus is light to dark gray-brown…
Punctured Tiger Beetle
The punctured tiger beetle, Cicindela punctulata, is common throughout North America and is primarily recognized by the twin lines of indentations on either side of its midline. It is also known as the sidewalk tiger beetle. Tiger beetles are a group of more than 2,600 known species and subspecies living all over the world. They…
Sumac Flea Beetle
The best way to really get an understanding of how many beetle species there are in the world is to try to identify one. Behold, the sumac flea beetle (Blepharida rhois), whose Wikipedia article consists of four entire sentences. This was a BUGGER (pardon the pun) to identify.
Air Potato Leaf Beetle
The air potato beetle, Lilioceris cheni. This dainty beast is used to help control toxic air potato vines (Dioscorea bulbifera), which are invasive in Florida.
Dark Flower Scarab
A plain little beetle with a beautiful name — meet Euphoria sepulcralis, the dark flower scarab beetle. Common throughout Florida and the east coast; an occasional pest if enough of them get together. This one is about 14mm long.