''Deloyala guttata'', the mottled tortoise beetle, is a species of tortoise beetle in the family

Chrysomelidae The insects of the beetle family Chrysomelidae are commonly known as leaf beetles, and include over 37,000 (and probably at least 50,000) species in more than 2,500 genera, making up one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle ...

. It is found in the Caribbean, Central America, North America, and South America. Deloyala guttata P1150234a

Larva carry shields made from

exuvia In biology, exuviae are the remains of an exoskeleton and related structures that are left after ecdysozoans (including insects, crustaceans and arachnids) have moulted. The exuviae of an animal can be important to biologists as they can often b ...

e and

frass Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter. Definition and etymology ''Frass'' is an informal term and accordingly it is variously used and variously defined. It is derived from the ...

on their abdomen that they lift to shield their dorsum from predators.

References

* Arnett, R. H. Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). (21 June 2002). ''American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea''. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, Florida . * Arnett, Ross H. (2000). ''American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico''. CRC Press. * Borowiec, Lech (1999). ''A world catalogue of the Cassidinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)'', 476. * Richard E. White. (1983). ''Peterson Field Guides: Beetles''. Houghton Mifflin Company. * Riley, Edward G., Shawn M. Clark, and Terry N. Seeno (2003). "Catalog of the leaf beetles of America north of Mexico (Coleoptera: Megalopodidae, Orsodacnidae and Chrysomelidae, excluding Bruchinae)". ''Coleopterists Society Special Publication no. 1'', 290. * White, Richard E. (1968). ''A Review of the Genus Cryptocephalus in America North of Mexico''. Smithsonian Institution Press. Cassidinae Beetles described in 1790 Beetles of North America Beetles of South America {{Cassidinae-stub

References

Further reading