Twenty-Spotted Lady Beetle
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.
This Psyllobora vigintimaculata (Twenty-Spotted Lady Beetle) was found on the underside of a leaf of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) we brought home from near the library to feed to Cater who is now eating so voraciously we fear he may start on the drapes if we do…ok not really but he is eating two to three medium sized milkweed leaves per day…
Before refrigerating the leaves we check them for predators and other hitchhikers. This Lady Bird Beetle was a scant 1.8mm in diameter. I checked it first under the microscope, then put everything I could into the macro to get a half decent shot. For hand held I think it holds up pretty well. Gotta work on flash techniques though.
Unlike most lady bird beetles, this tiny beetle feeds primarily on fungus found on leaves and stems of many plants.
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Coleoptera
- Family
- Coccinellidae
- Genus
- Psyllobora
- Species
- Psyllobora vigintimaculata
Life Photo MemeOriginally I had a special guest photo lined up for the Life Photo Meme, but somehow I forgot it’s Invert Thursday! The guest photo is definitely not an invertebrate. So I guess that posting will have to wait for next week!
4 Comments
Do the twenty spotted beetles actually have 20 spots?
Oh, and I can’t wait to see what you have for next week! Any hints?
Cater is the caterpillar, yes? Has it gotten much bigger?
Yep, “Cater” is what my son Johann named the caterpillar. It is MUCH bigger now. I will be posting something later this weekend with an update on the caterpillar. Also will be putting some individual pictures up at larvalimages.com
@Kate: Yep, just counted, and it does indeed look like 20 spots. Some merge together and one extends across both elytra,
Only hints… terrestrial and mega-charismatic.
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