Paropsis charybdis (Paropsis charybdis)

Paropsis charybdis larva This beetle is recorded as a pest species for the timber industry particularly in New Zealand where it is exotic. Australia,Fall,Geotagged,Paropsis,Paropsis charybdis,Spring

Appearance

About 12mm long and with an overall peaked dome shape this beetle has heavily random pitting on the elytra and pronotum (common with Paropsis) and an overlay of several shades or pink, cream, red, brown. These shades and colours can each be present in more or less amounts so the underlying patterns need to be identified for an ID.

Whirlpool paropsid (Paropsis charybdis) This little leaf beetle was semi-translucent with strong red, cream and dark patches. Pitted lines in elytra. About 10mm long.
Attracted to security lights at the local school late at night.
This species seems to have several colour and shade variations making instant ID sometimes difficult. Australia,Geotagged,Paropsis charybdis,Spring,paropsis

Distribution

Native to south-eastern states of Australia although it has become a pest in other countries which grown plantation eucalyptus.

Status

Common

Behavior

They emerge from hibernation in August to September.
Lifecycle is 7-9 weeks @ 20 Celsius and varies with food plant.

Habitat

Eucalyptus forests.

Reproduction

The female can produce 1500 to 2000 eggs.
They are bivoltine meaning two broods per season.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

http://bie.ala.org.au/species/Paropsis+charybdis#
https://sites.google.com/site/paropsispages/paropsis-charybdis

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Animalia
Division	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Coleoptera
Family	Chrysomelidae
Genus	Paropsis
Species	Paropsis charybdis

Photographed in
Australia