Subject: Gold leaf beetle?
Geographic location of the bug: Saba, Caribbean Netherlands
Date: 07/30/2018
Time: 10:37 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: This lovely was resting on a water hyacinth in my garden. The iPhone pic doesn’t do its color justice – it was a bright metallic gold. I’m guessing it’s a leaf or a tortoise beetle, but I haven’t been able to find any matches online. Any ideas?
(Plus, it’s a really cool photo and I wanted to share it.)
How you want your letter signed: drsunsets
Dear dr sunsets,
This is a Leaf Beetle in the family Chrysomelidae, and we believe it is a Tortoise Beetle in the tribe Cassidini, but we didn’t read your submission that carefully, and we thought you took this image in The Netherlands, so we did not find any matching images. We will attempt a new search of Caribbean species. A quick search turned up no matches. Perhaps one of our readers will have better luck.
Wow, thanks so much for your quick reply!