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Spotted Tortoise Beetle
Aspidimorpha miliaris
15.4584, 119.914
Field Notes
Description:
Aspidimorpha miliaris (Fabricius, 1775). I find this species to be one of the more interesting Tortoise Beetles. I have seen many of them over the years, but every time I encounter one, it appears to be noticeably different from all the previous ones. I think this is mainly because the black spots are never quite symmetrical and the base colour varies from deep orange to light yellow. The beetle shown here has the more common yellow colour on its thorax, but its elytra are so light, they could could almost be described as white.
Habitat:
Spotted in foliage at the side of a narrow track. The area is sparsely populated and mostly covered by remnants of tropical forest.
Notes:
I used to have great difficulty in understanding the colours on the back of Aspidimorpha miliaris. I assumed, wrongly that the elytra were entirely clear and I had no idea exactly where the yellow background and the black spots were. I was thinking about the wings and the upper surface of the abdomen and just got in a muddle because I had never been able to take a photo of one in flight and had never seen such a picture anywhere. I am very grateful to Ranger Tukup who, in April this year, directed me to https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tortoise-beetle-flying-back-si… where I saw an excellent picture of A. miliaris in flight. If you want to understand the colouring of this species, please click on the link. The picture just makes it so simple to understand.
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