day-glo orange/black beetle
July 3, 2010
Hi Daniel, This little fellow came by for a short visit today. I grabbed the camera with a long lens and took a few photos before going back inside to change lens, it left just as I returned. It was 3/8 inch long this may be a common insect but I don’t believe I ever saw one before with that color it would be hard to miss. Can you ID this one for me? I searched thru your site but didn’t really know what to look for. Thank you for all you do and have a wonderful day.
Richard
North Middle Tennessee
Hi Richard,
We did not think your beetle would be difficult to identify, but we scanned through hundreds of species of Leaf Beetles in the family Chrysomelidae on BugGuide to no avail last night. We drew a blank and we were about to post your letter and seek assistance, but we tried one last attempt at an identification this morning. We suspected this was a Flea Beetle in the tribe Alticini, and perhaps a good night’s sleep rested our weary eyes, because we had no problem identifying your Passionflower Flea Beetle, Disonycha discoidea, when we attempted our second search. According to BugGuide, it is “Fairly large, elytra orange-red with large, common black spot (1) (2). Typically found on Passionflower (Passiflora).”
