A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Paropsisterna crocata
A dome-shaped leaf beetle much larger than the ones I've seen so far. Elytra were only slightly pitted so giving it a glossy look. The beetle was uniformly fawn coloured. The basal part of each elytron wing showed a low profile protuberance.
Spotted under bright lights near a national park.
This species obviously comes in many colours. Below are spottings by martinl and Mark Ridgway http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/445... http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/387... My beetle was much like Mark's but with a tan ! Family: Chrysomelidae Subfamily: Chrysomelinae
Spotted on Jan 27, 2014
Submitted on Jan 28, 2014
3 Comments
Martin, I was positive this would be a Paropsis genus because of its size - it was even slightly bigger than P.atomaria. but not knowing much about these, I had to accept the ID from spottings by you and Mark.
The gloss might be partly due to the flash but it did have a polished waxy look. i love the colour and fresh look !
Tan and shine? maybe from sunbaking with lotion.
This is a great beetle which I somehow missed. I've seen a tan one now. I think your ID is correct but there are two questions. Others have a matt finish and yours seems glossy. Do you think this was from the flash? Secondly yours seems to have several weak lateral lines produced entirely by the pitting patterns on the elytra. This feature is almost but never really observed on other specimens. I have wanted to place this into Paropsis genus based on its size. One feature almost universal in Paropsis is a crenulate (or nearly so) lateral margin on the pronotum. Your paropsisterna is entirely smooth. Nice.
Crocata is a latin word meaning "saffron-colored".