dont know what this is.
Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 11:17 AM
hi, i’m in new york. suffolk county long island. i found this bug on my cucumber leaves. their was a whole bunch in july. i still got cucumbers, but these bugs were eating the leaves. thanks for any info you can give me.
christine
suffolk county long island NY
Hi Christine,
Seeing as your cucumber leaf lover is immature, it is a bit more difficult to properly identify. We must confess that we aren’t entirely sure of the order. We wish the mouth parts were visible in your photo or that you had described the leaf damage. Were they chewed or did they wither? The reason we would like to know about the mouth parts or leaf damage is that our first inclination is that this is some type of Hemipteran, the insect order containing insects with sucking mouthparts like Aphids and True Bugs. We couldn’t find a match on BugGuide. We might also entertain that this might be the larva of one of the Leaf Beetles though we favor a Hemipteran. Many Tortoise Beetles are covered with projections, but we couldn’t find a match on BugGuide. We will contact Eric Eaton to get some assistance.
Hi:
Peculiar as it is, it is the larva of a leaf beetle (family Chrysomelidae).
Eric