Quirkiest Beetle You've Seen Today - _TNY_6367S4
At first glance, this might look like some sort of weird ladybird - but it isn't.
Instead, the six-spotted pot beetle (Cryptocephalus sexpunctatus) is something way quirkier and more interesting.
Let's start with the scientific name, Cryptocephalus - head hider. This is because they like to keep their heads hidden underneath the pronotum.
Next, why "pot beetle"? Well, the females do this rather peculiar thing where they hold each egg they're laying with their rearmost pair of legs and then coat it with a mixture of a waxy substance and her own droppings (known as "frass") in a process with the wonderful name of "scatoshelling" until the egg is encased in a little flask - or "pot".
This process can take ten minutes - per egg - and when she's done she drops it to the ground (the Swedish name for these translates into "fall beetles" because of the fall the eggs make).
The shell made from feces unsurprisingly deters predators and when the larvae hatch they actually keep the flask like a little sleeping bag for protection. Somehow the larvae manage to extend the pot using their own feces as they grow so they can keep using it and still fit in it. It can take as long as three years for a Cryptocephalus larvae to complete its development.
I found this one on a leaf near Härnösand, Sweden, but I didn't have a clue about all of this then so I didn't look underneath the plant for any pots.
It stayed nice and still though which let me take this shot which is a focus stack made from four exposures at 3.3:1 magnification and combined using Zerene Stacker.
Quirkiest Beetle You've Seen Today - _TNY_6367S4
At first glance, this might look like some sort of weird ladybird - but it isn't.
Instead, the six-spotted pot beetle (Cryptocephalus sexpunctatus) is something way quirkier and more interesting.
Let's start with the scientific name, Cryptocephalus - head hider. This is because they like to keep their heads hidden underneath the pronotum.
Next, why "pot beetle"? Well, the females do this rather peculiar thing where they hold each egg they're laying with their rearmost pair of legs and then coat it with a mixture of a waxy substance and her own droppings (known as "frass") in a process with the wonderful name of "scatoshelling" until the egg is encased in a little flask - or "pot".
This process can take ten minutes - per egg - and when she's done she drops it to the ground (the Swedish name for these translates into "fall beetles" because of the fall the eggs make).
The shell made from feces unsurprisingly deters predators and when the larvae hatch they actually keep the flask like a little sleeping bag for protection. Somehow the larvae manage to extend the pot using their own feces as they grow so they can keep using it and still fit in it. It can take as long as three years for a Cryptocephalus larvae to complete its development.
I found this one on a leaf near Härnösand, Sweden, but I didn't have a clue about all of this then so I didn't look underneath the plant for any pots.
It stayed nice and still though which let me take this shot which is a focus stack made from four exposures at 3.3:1 magnification and combined using Zerene Stacker.