280 days of Urbpandemonium #68

Photographing a pair of insects engaged in the copulatory act does not necessarily make you a pervert. Whether you are a pervert or not, when insects are mating, you generally have a male and a female both present, increasing your chances of identifying the species in question. You can see that the male has more white on his head and thorax, for example, pervert.

These ladybeetles are very small ones, only a few millimeters long each. I wasn't positive that I was seeing ladybeetles until I cropped the photo to see them closely. This species, Propylea quatuordecimpunctata*, is yet another Eurasian ladybeetle, introduced to North America by accident and intentionally, at different times.

*"A propylaea, propylea or propylaia (/ˌprɒpɪˈliːə/; Greek: Προπύλαια) is any monumental gateway based on the original Propylaea that serves as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens." (wikipedia) What does that have to do with this beetle? Dunno. Maybe that central double spot made the taxonomist think of the Acropolis for some reason. The rest means "14 spotted."

Insect tracking mystery

I discovered these feeding marks on the leaves of a quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides*) sapling recently. I figured a look through the old Eiseman and Charney book ought to settle it easily.



But it didn't. The kind of feeding--on the surface of the leaf, leaving the bottom surface somewhat intact--falls into the category of "skeletonization." In the second photo you can see the feeding is more fresh, and a line of droppings follows the path of feeding. I could find no specific reference to aspen leaf skeletonizers. I took the perhaps impolite next step of bugging Eiseman on facebook.

His alarmingly quick response was "Must be a beetle, but I don't know who it is exactly." followed by "Chrysomela was one thought I had--I think several species feed on poplars ... Some weevils leave similar patterns, but I'm not sure if any feed on poplar leaves. Various other chyrsomelids also feed on poplars."

So, until I find the beetle in the act, we'll have to leave it there. Thanks Charley!

* the -oides suffix means "looks like." So North American quaking aspen's scientific name means "Looks like European quaking aspen."