Calligrapha amator
My seventeen year-old son, like his mother, has a keen eye for neat and unusual things in the wild - from insects to mushrooms, he is always asking about things and pointing them out. And to him I owe this discovery: the Calligrapha, a leaf beetle, from the same general family as various weevils.
It is named ‘Calligrapha’ because of the dark green/black markings on the elytra (the hard shells that cover the wings, as with ladybugs), which are said to resemble artful writing or ornamental designs. The amator is actually one of the least decorative species; others are red and black, or green and black. The eleven segments in the antennae are a species marker.
They eat plants, and can be a bit hard on them, but they are not really destructive. In Canada, they are found (infrequently) in southern and southeastern Ontario - this one was up in North Frontenac, and I reported the location of the discovery after finding very few reports from that part of the world.
Calligrapha amator
My seventeen year-old son, like his mother, has a keen eye for neat and unusual things in the wild - from insects to mushrooms, he is always asking about things and pointing them out. And to him I owe this discovery: the Calligrapha, a leaf beetle, from the same general family as various weevils.
It is named ‘Calligrapha’ because of the dark green/black markings on the elytra (the hard shells that cover the wings, as with ladybugs), which are said to resemble artful writing or ornamental designs. The amator is actually one of the least decorative species; others are red and black, or green and black. The eleven segments in the antennae are a species marker.
They eat plants, and can be a bit hard on them, but they are not really destructive. In Canada, they are found (infrequently) in southern and southeastern Ontario - this one was up in North Frontenac, and I reported the location of the discovery after finding very few reports from that part of the world.