Green Strip Leaf Beetle - Calomela pallida
FAMILY CHRYSOMELIDAE
This page contains information and pictures about Green Strip Leaf Beetles that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 10mm
- We sometimes find this green leaf beetle in Alexandra Hill and Karawatha Forest during mid summer. They usually are wandering on a young Acacia tree.
- Although it is brightly green in colour, when it hides on a Acacia leaf in the shade, it is hardly be noticed.
- It is a slow moving insects. After we took a few pictures, it slowly walked to the leaf edge and flied to another young Acacia tree a couple of meters away.
- Here we would like to thank Nick Monaghan of lifeunseen.com on helping to identify this species.
Feigning Death
- The 'play dead' trick is quite common in the insects world. We saw at least some bugs, stick insects and caterpillars will do this when facing with danger. This trick sometimes work because some predators do not eat dead or motionless prey.
- When disturbed, this leaf beetle dropped onto the ground and play dead. After a while it slowly walked away and found some places to hide.
- We have more information about insects Feigning Death Behaviour in this page.
The Host Plant
- Black Wattle
- Acacia leiocalyx
- This beetle was found alone on young Black Wattle trees. Black Wattles are one of the most common trees in Brisbane's Eucalypt forest and bushland. We did not notice any damage was done by this beetle to the host plant.
- Thank to Chris Reid for the identification of this leaf beetle.
- Reference:
- 1. Calomela pallida - lifeunseen.com by Nick Monaghan, 2007.
- 2. Calomela pallida - Botanic Gardens Trust.
- 3. A Reappraisal of the Australian Species of the Genus Calomela Hope (Coleoptera : Chrysomelidae) - B. J. Selman, Australian Journal of Zoology 27(4) 561 - 584
