Peltoschema jucunda

Peltoschema jucunda

Peltoschema jucunda (Chapuis, 1877) is a small leaf beetle in the Peltoschema genus and the "oceanica" species group, being the aggregation within this genus that are coccinellidae mimics.
Peltoschema jucunda The id is based on similarity with museum specimens collected from Perth. This member of Peltoschema feeds on native pea species including Daviesia. It is my guess that they are sometimes/usually orange. This is the case for similar species of Peltoschema that are known coccinellidae mimics. A similar species (P. festiva) occurs in Victoria, yet unseen by me and a target for this month. https://www.jungledragon.com/image/36902/ladybird_mimic_leaf_beetle_peltoschema_oceanica.html Peltoschema oceanica, ladybird mimic, by Mark Ridgway. Australia,Geotagged,Peltoschema,Peltoschema jucunda,Summer,Winter

Appearance

Small and broadly oval. Most Peltoschema are more elongate.

Naming

Peltoschema jucunda (Chapuis, 1877)

Distribution

Western Australia

Status

Scarce. Probably secure.

Food

Feeding on Daviesia and probably other genera of native peas.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:7a184504-470c-4934-acef-5c3a6872a899
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderColeoptera
FamilyChrysomelidae
GenusPeltoschema
SpeciesPeltoschema jucunda
Photographed in
Australia