Can any of you ID these dark blue beetles munching on my flowering vine? I'd love to know what the vine is, too - it was here when we moved in, twines around our mail box and is having ongoing pest problems. I'm posting a secong photo with a better image of the flowers.
Here is a second view.
The beetles are margined blister beetles, Epicauta pestifera (Coleoptera: Meloidae) - see http://tinyurl.com/ngbeba and http://tinyurl.com/lzmxfn
However, I do not recognize the plant - have you tried posting it on the Wildlife Gardeners site?
Hi, suunto. Are there many of us on both sites? Actually, your second link led me to a review that led me to tentatively ID my vine as Sweet Autumn Clematis. At the moment the vine has no flowers to compare (I confess the beetles were from last year; we just watched them, the plant survived and I cut away the dead parts over the winter in case there were eggs. No sign this year so far, but it is early). The photos on Plant ID look very similar, although I'm not sure if the leaves are 100%. When it flowers I'll put up photos if it doesn't look like SAC. Thanks for the ID. I gather you are the "resident entomologist". I'm glad to have you!
