Small Yellow Feet - _TNY_1813
This little beauty with a blueish metallic sheen and a finely punctated elytra is a Chrysolina varians leaf beetle. The host plant is St John's wort (Hypericum sp.) but here it is sitting upside down on a petal on a softly pink mallow (Malva sp.), simply because I put it there after it landed on me.
Looking closely at its feet, you can notice they are dirty with yellow pollen which is there because it sat on a different plant first but didn't like it and after opening it's elytra and displaying a wonderful pair of orange wings it flew off.
Not sure if this is a guy or a girl. They are quite variable in colour and can be green, bronze, reddish or blueish black but it doesn't seem to be connected with which sex it is.
Small Yellow Feet - _TNY_1813
This little beauty with a blueish metallic sheen and a finely punctated elytra is a Chrysolina varians leaf beetle. The host plant is St John's wort (Hypericum sp.) but here it is sitting upside down on a petal on a softly pink mallow (Malva sp.), simply because I put it there after it landed on me.
Looking closely at its feet, you can notice they are dirty with yellow pollen which is there because it sat on a different plant first but didn't like it and after opening it's elytra and displaying a wonderful pair of orange wings it flew off.
Not sure if this is a guy or a girl. They are quite variable in colour and can be green, bronze, reddish or blueish black but it doesn't seem to be connected with which sex it is.