Swollen-legged Leaf Beetle (Sagra bicolor)

Family Chrysomelidae

They are fairly large, nearly 2cm in length with the male having the swollen legs which are much longer than his body.

They are found only in the northern areas.

Spotted Tortoise Beetle (Conchyloctenia punctata)

Family Chrysomelidae

They are common in South Africa and can vary from a copper colour to orange or red.

They are smallish, about 12mm in length.

 The front portion is a reddish brown unlike most other tortoise beetle which have an almost clear ridge around it.

The eggs are laid on the underside of the leaf and hatch after about two weeks, the pupa being white with black markings.

Beetle larvae stack their excreta (the long thin, black filaments) as well as cast off skins onto a thin, fork-like appendage near the muscular anus. This forms the “tail” of the larva.

Milkweed Leaf Beetle Platycorynus dejeani Chrysomelidae

This is a leaf eating beetle of the Chrysomelidae family and has to be one of the prettiest we have.
It is small, maybe ½ an inch in body length and the difference in color between males and females can clearly be seen in this mating pair.

Besides adults eating leaves and flowers, larvae bore into stems and roots.

In one of my reference books it holds a dubious record……

….during research, it was found that the female of this species mated with various males a record of 60 times.!! LOL!! I wonder who was doing the counting? :)

Milkweed Leaf Beetle (Platycorynus dejeani) Chrysomelidae

I unfortunately only got one shot of this metallic beetle before he took off and it is not a very good one, sorry. However it does show his bright metallic colours which attracted my attention to him. Luckily a few month later I was able to find a mating pair and get more pictures.