Introduction
This beetle occurs in the Rocky Mountains and in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. It is also found further north in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Alberta, and British Columbia (Brown 1956). There is considerable individual variation in the patterns of its wings, and you can see that beetles from Colorado have a different wing pattern than those from California. I plan to measure wing pattern variation and determine whether it is related to environmental factors such as elevation and latitude.
When new adults emerge from the pupae, the spots are light green, but they change to bright red by the following spring. These are black and white images. Click on them to see a closer view.
You can also click onto the localities to see their location (using the USGS mapping service).
Female beetles from Bishop
Creek (South Lake),
California (Inyo County) 2800m above sea level
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Female beetles from Granite, Colorado (Chafee county) 3000m
(collected by Patrick Mardulyn of the
University of Arkansas)
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To see the wing patterns of Chrysomela knabi and Chrysomela scripta, click here.
Literature Cited
Brown, W. J. 1956. The New World
species of Chrysomela L. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Can. Entomol.
88: 1-54.
Student
Research| Publications | Nathan
Rank's Homepage | Department
of Biology | Sonoma State
University
December 3, 1997 NER
