my morning glories have BLING!

[canesisters]

Have any of you heard of golden tortoise beetles? They have been doing a number on my morning glories' leaves. They haven't - yet - effected the blooms (and they are so pretty) so I've left them alone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_tortoise_beetle

 

[journey11]

I've seen them behind a glass case. Unreal how pretty and unique beetles can be. I can see now why the Egyptians had scarab jewelry.

 

[Carol Dee]

COOL as long as they leave the blooms alone!

 

[curly_kate]

So pretty!

 

[so lucky]

Too bad they don't stay that color; you could make a necklace of bugs!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Don't know if we have tht one around here. I KNOW we have the other common North American species, Plagiometriona clavata. They eat the HECK out of the Solanace in my garden. Fortunately they tend to be less interested in the Tomatoes that the wild nightshades (guess those go down easier) . But the year I tried to grow potatoes from seed, Oosh!

But yeah some of them can be truly gorgeous. In fact I have a small number of dead beetles preserved in alcohol in my room, simply because they were too pretty to toss. My "prize" so to speak, is a specimen of
Eupoecila inscripta , a close cousin of the Australian Fiddler beetle, also from Australia and sharing its bright yellow, black and burgundy color pattern just more yellow and less black. I found it, of all places in a tub of frogs being sold in a fish market in Chinatown. Must have crawled in along the way and drowned. That's why it's in alcohol (Given how water sodden it was, I though that, if I tried to preserve it dried, as insects normally are, it's rot before it dried.) Oh and the Thai ladybugs I found in some coriander from there (like our backwards two spot, but with six spots and smaller)