invasion of ?

i have recently moved & have these plants on the river bank
the neighbors tell me that every spring they are totally eaten by these beetles
does anybody know what the plant is or the beetle ?

thanks
Dick

remind me never to plant that one in my yard! LOL

Oh my gosh! I have never seen anything like that! They do look like water beetles.

they kind of look like click beetles.

I think click beetles are longer.

i think you're right about the clicks.

It looks to be a virgina creeper as far as the plant. The beetles Definately need a BT dosing. Wait taste them first you may never need to buy beef again. Or better yet they may taste like chicken. Hee Hee

They are plentiful! Is Virginia Creeper quilted?

If you mean by quilted that the leaf pattern is thick and bunchy yes. When mine first start the new shoots they look like these. Any surviving vines anywhere. Everybody likes to eat the V Creeper. White flies got one of mine last year. The deer love them and prune the other sides.

Ahh, I've only seen it in the woods and thought it was smooth. I didn't know it was a food favorite. I just knew it had 5 leaves and poison ivy 3.

Hmmm I thought VA Creeper is an invasive vine .. are you telling me people acutally buy it and plant it? Wow .. I have that stuff all over my fence and I spend the whole summer each year trying to iradicate it.

X

Ah the difference between Zone 8 and Zone 4b. It is a beautiful specimen for fences here and the fall colors are spectacular. Your right SC would hate it.

here is a better pict of the plant they are wiping out

it doesn't look at all like virginia creeper. why don't you post the plant picture in the id forum? maybe there is a specific beetle that only preys on that plant.

Yeah its not creeper. I don't know. The beetles look like the carniverous beetles we used in Vet school to clean off the bones of our skeletons.

Virginia creeper looks like a maple/Pot leave
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/89817/

Weed here in southern Ohio

But the beetles are GROSS!!!

Try these for id:
California Prionus (scroll down on the page to find it on this link)
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/beetles2.html
http://www.bobjensenphotography.com/-/bobjensenphotography/detail.asp?photoID=526946&cat=347

I did not know that pots had leaves. I thought it was the plants put in them. Huh? It is hard to understand the verbage of city people. If only beetles had fuzzy tails they would be welcome.

Looks very much like Altica bimarginata, a western willow-feeding flea beetle. I would need to do more research to see if it eats anything else. There are others Alticas that feed on other plants.
CJ

I was thinking blister beetle but I don't know what they eat.

I don't think so. Blister beetles are more slender. They feed on a very wide range of plants, but many of the larvae are considered beneficial because they develop by feeding on the egg pods of grasshoppers. Others are parastitic on ground nesting bees. TMI. lol....
Still think they are Altica bimarginata. It is shown on page 201 of Whitney Cranshaw's "Garden Insects of North America" - a great book for insect ID and for what feeds on which plant. Loaded with photos of both adult and larvae insects. Lots of info in this book. I highly recommend it! I paid $29.95 for it in paperback.

This message was edited May 1, 2006 5:41 PM

It doesn't look like Virginia Creeper. Where do the beetles go when the plants are gone?

http://images.google.com/images?q=altica+bimarginata&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

Those pictures have one thing wrong with them - there is a pin stuck in the back of the beetle, spreading its wings. The wings then cover the edge of the body - and that edge can be seen in Strever's photo, and in the book. I think that may be why it is called bimarginata (two margins).

i think you are correct CeeJay
it is definitely an Altica most likely bimarginata specializing on sand willows
the leaves also look very much like the sand dune willow Salix cordata
http://www.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/herbarium/shrubs/salcor_leaf01.jpg
who's distribution is not shown for the PNW, must be a very close relative.
the neighbors say it happens every spring & summer on the river bank

Dick

I don't know what your plant is, so can't help there. But what I want to know is - how did you get such a great picture of that little beetle? It was so clear and definitive...

This was very interesting!

CJ, I didn't know that about blister beetles. I hates grasshoppers!

Soferdig, cool on the vet school.

CeeJay
i changed to a macro lens & took his portrait :-)
& as you can see in this pict the focal length is small

This message was edited May 1, 2006 11:31 PM

What kind of camera?

an older Nikon D100
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/nikon_d100.html

STRE,
Mine is OLDER a NIKON M-Rangefinder

:P

Best;
Bluelytes

Small focal length is great - that's one of the reasons why even though it is only 4 megapixels, I am reluctant to give up on my Nikon Coolpix 4500 - it has about a 1 1/2 inch practical minimal focal distance in macro - a little farther (about 2 inches) at total zoom in on macro. I like getting up close with my bug subjects - I also like the "twist" function which lets me get at the critter from almost any angle.

If I got an additional lens to add on, I suppose it might be even better.

Edited to add: Hopefully this made sense, and that "small focal length" is similar to "minimum focal distance" as I am interpreting (in other words, getting right up next to the critter), otherwise, please disregard my entire message.

This message was edited May 10, 2006 5:27 PM