Frog Legged Leaf Beetle from Malaysia

Green Metal Beetle
Location: Penang, Malaysia
March 27, 2011 11:24 pm
Hi Bugman!
I’ve developed an interesting hobby which is macrography but most of the time I’ve failed to identify the bugs within the photo because didn’t have much information on them. I’ve hope that I could learn more of this lovely insects and hopefully share my photos for all to enjoy 🙂
Signature: mysticz

Dear mysticz,
This is some species of Flea Beetle in the tribe Alticini.  Flea Beetles are in the Leaf Beetle family  Chrysomelidae and the feed upon the leaves of plants.  Many Leaf Beetles are very host specific and many are considered agricultural pests.  We are going to try to research the exact species of Flea Beetle in your photo.  We did find a photo of your beetle on TrekNature, and it was photographed in Malaysia, but the species is not identified, and though it is identified as a Leaf Beetle, it is classified in a different subfamily.  We believe our Tribe identification to be correct, though we might be wrong. TrekNature indicates:  “in reality I think the local call it ‘Kumbang Hijau’  of equivalent to green beetle.”  We also found a photo of a similar beetle identified as a Frog Legged Beetle, Sagra buqueti, on the pharmasiana website, but that posting is riddled with incorrect information, beginning with the classification in the order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) rather than Coleoptera (beetles), however we are going to pursue that information to see if we can get verification from a credible website.  God of Insects shows a Malaysian Frog Legged Beetle pair, Sagra buqueti, and the taxonomy is family Chrysomelidae.  The contrary information is on ZipCode Zoo where Sagra buqueti is identified as a Sphinx Moth.  The metallic coloration on the beetle images of Sagra buqueti differs from the green of your specimen, but they do look similar and we believe they may be closely related.  Scrolling down the I Love Flower Beetles Blog will show a posting dated October 12, 2010 that profiles the Frog Beetles and a video is included.  We believe we hit upon the correct ID, again on TrekNature, where a beetle identified as Sagra femorata looks identical to your beetle, down to the color.  There is a photo of a dead specimen on the Southeast Asian Beetles page of Beetle Diversity.  God of Insects calls Sagra femorata a Frog Legged Beetle and indicates it comes in variable color forms, including blue, green, red and magenta.  We end our search satisfied that this is a Frog Legged Leaf Beetle, Sagra femorata by linking to one final image on TrekNature.

Mr Bugman,
Thank you so much for the identification, love and will continue to support your site.
b.rgds
mysticz