The milkweed leaf beetle (''Labidomera clivicollis'') is a species of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

from 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 ...

Description

''L. clivicollis'' is a small, rounded beetle 8–11 mm in length. It has a black head and

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ea ...

, but brightly coloured

elytra An elytron (; ; , ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometimes alterna ...

; variable from dark orange to bright yellow. The elytra are mottled with black patches throughout. The larva of ''L. clivicollis'' is bright orange, with a prominent row of black

spiracle Spiracle or spiraculum may refer to: * Spiracle (arthropods), opening in the exoskeletons of some arthropods * Spiracle (vertebrates), openings on the surface of some vertebrates * Spiraculum, a genus of land snails in family Cyclophoridae Cycl ...

Diet

There are a number of host plants associated with ''L. clivicollis'': milkweeds, especially swamp milkweed (''

Asclepias incarnata ''Asclepias incarnata'', the swamp milkweed, rose milkweed, rose milkflower, swamp silkweed, or white Indian hemp, is a herbaceous perennial plant species native to North America. It grows in damp through wet soils and also is cultivated as a ga ...

'') and common milkweed ('' A. syriaca''); swallow-wort (''

Cynanchum ''Cynanchum'' is a genus of about 300 species including some swallowworts, belonging to the family Apocynaceae. The taxon name comes from Greek ''kynos'' (meaning "dog") and ''anchein'' ("to choke"), hence the common name for several species is ...

''); twinevine ('' Funastrum'').

References

Chrysomelinae Taxa named by William Kirby (entomologist) Beetles described in 1837 {{Chrysomelinae-stub