Greetings fellow Foxies
Last week I discovered a flea beetle love nest on a Blueberry Lily with at least a 6 pairs mating on the flowers and taking an occasional nip of flower to maintain their stamina.
The flea beetle is a small, jumping beetle of the leaf beetle family (Chrysomelidae), that makes up the tribe Alticini.
I first noticed some last year as ~ 4mm shiny beetles that jumped like fleas when I tried to photograph them. Have a look at the hind leg muscles in the images below -seriously steroidal.
A bit of Googling revealed that they can be pests in the northern hemisphere, and I recognised a picture of a larva as a horrible little grub that shreds marshmallow weed leaves in my back yard each winter. They are welcome to marshmallow but move on to crucifers like turnips and broccoli. I have learnt not to grow turnips or allow marshmallow to germinate in the garden patch before planting broccoli.
Last week I discovered a flea beetle love nest on a Blueberry Lily with at least a 6 pairs mating on the flowers and taking an occasional nip of flower to maintain their stamina.
The flea beetle is a small, jumping beetle of the leaf beetle family (Chrysomelidae), that makes up the tribe Alticini.
I first noticed some last year as ~ 4mm shiny beetles that jumped like fleas when I tried to photograph them. Have a look at the hind leg muscles in the images below -seriously steroidal.
A bit of Googling revealed that they can be pests in the northern hemisphere, and I recognised a picture of a larva as a horrible little grub that shreds marshmallow weed leaves in my back yard each winter. They are welcome to marshmallow but move on to crucifers like turnips and broccoli. I have learnt not to grow turnips or allow marshmallow to germinate in the garden patch before planting broccoli.
Brachonid wasps and Tachinid flies are parasitoid flea beetle predators. Adults lay eggs on flea beetle larvae that hatch to produce a grub-like larva that burrows, consumes the insides and pupates there to start the cycle again. I am surprised that I have seen so few beetles and will have to monitor marshmallows next winter.