If you’ve been here a while (for which, sincere thanks!), you might remember the bizarre larvae of the Thistle tortoise beetle that employ a faecal shield as a protective device, carrying their own excretions above their backs as a disguise (Thistle tortoise beetle larvae, 7 July 2022). Well, earlier this week, while checking the leaves of Common fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica) for leafminers, I found another example of this behaviour.

These are Fleabane tortoise beetle larvae (Cassida murraea), which, like all other members of the tortoise beetle family, the Cassidinae, use a combination of their own frass and moulted skin, secretions and plant material to create the cryptic disguises they carry around behind and above their vulnerable bodies.

This particular species has not been recorded locally before and I’ve never seen the adult beetles so I’ll be poking about in the fleabane in the coming weeks to see if I can find any.