Subject: Unknown larva
Geographic location of the bug: Virginia Beach,Virginia
Date: 05/04/2019
Time: 09:28 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Looking for id possibly a sawfly larva
How you want your letter signed: Maurice Cullen
Dear Maurice,
One of the easiest ways to identify a plant feeding insect is to know the plant upon which it is feeding. This is actually a Leaf Beetle larva, and we have found a matching image on BugGuide for the genus Trirhabda. Of the genus, BugGuide notes: “26 spp. in our area” and “Host plants are in the families Asteraceae and Hydrophyllaceae. Larvae and adults usually feed on leaves and flowers of a single plant species or genus: one group of species feeds on goldenrod (Solidago); another group on wormwood (Artemisia); another on Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon); etc.”