Golden tortoise beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata) is a tiny, metallic North American insect that belongs to the leaf beetle family, Chrysomelidae, which includes flea beetles, asparagus beetles and longhorn beetles. Nicknamed 'goldenbugs', golden tortoise beetles grow to around 5.0 to 7.0 mm in length and favor foods such as sweet potato and morning glory.
It looks like a golden contact lens and it can also completely change colors. Reversible color change is extremely rare, but not unheard of in insects - in Australia, male members of the dragonfly genus Austrolestes and the grasshopper genus Kosciuscola can switch from black to a brilliant blue due to changes in temperature.
What sets the color-changing tortoise beetles apart, however, is that the color change is controlled by them, in response to specific events in their environment, such as being poked by a curious human or stumbling upon a willing mate.
Reference:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/glad-you-ditched-the-anal-fork-golden-tortoise-beetle/
http://www.asknature.org/strategy/7b252e8110489e97fff0c6f07bdf87ed
Image via Wikipedia Commons
#bugs #coolcritters #biodiversity #beetle
so interesting, I'm amazed at how many things you find that I've not heard of before. Thanks for another great post!
ReplyDeletePretty as an adult, but disgusting as a baby. The tortoise beetle larva has an appendage on its abdomen called a fecal fork that collects, well, it's feces, which the larva wears as a disguise and uses to foul it's flavour to would be predators. Yuck.
ReplyDeleteAdam Philippe pretty clever, I'd say :-)
ReplyDelete