CLOSED: Black and white beetle with yellow heads

Dirus Tucson, AZ(Zone 9b) Aug 18, 2007

I spotted these little beetles going at it on my Charentais vine. Can someone ID them? I fear they are Striped Cucumber Beetles, but their bodies are white and black. Does this make any difference?

Post #3872113

Quote

Dirus Tucson, AZ(Zone 9b) Aug 19, 2007

Here's another one by itself.

Post #3872784

Quote

linda_nc Greensboro, NC(Zone 7b) Aug 19, 2007

It looks like this guy ... http://bugguide.net/node/view/56297

Post #3873858

Quote

kennedyh Churchill, Victoria, Australia(Zone 10a) Aug 19, 2007

Dirus

I agree with Linda, that is Synetocephalus bivittatus.

We had no record of this beetle in BugFiles, so I have created an entry for it here: http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/4866/

Would you please add your images to our page

Kennedy

Post #3875369

Quote

Dirus Tucson, AZ(Zone 9b) Aug 20, 2007

Thanks Linda, that's exactly the guy! Good job. =)

I believe all Chrysomelidae feed on plant leaves? Oh well.

Hi again Kennedy. Looks like someone beat you to the ID this time. ;-) I believe a more specific and common name is "Skeletonizing Leaf Beetle," opposed to the more general "Leaf Beetle." In fact, Linda's link refer to this as well. Can you change the common name on the bug file?

If you search google images for the two you will see the difference. For some reason DG is removing the search terms from my links. >_<
I'll try giving the two links here but I don't expect it them work: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=%22Skeletonizing+Leaf+Beetle%22 vs http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=%22Leaf+Beetle%22