Dark Lantana Leafminer
Size 9mm. Found in our garden on our rosemary bush. This beetle was released in Australia in the mid 1960s. There are no Lantana, its supposed feeding plant, near where this specimen was found. The beetle looked all black. It was neatly tucked onto a rosemary leaf, where it meets a fresh shoot. I could only make out the animal through the lens of my camera. It looked more like a bird dropping than a living animal. In magnification one can see that its thorax shows a beautiful pattern in black and red. Its eyes are frontal and very close to each other, similar to its antennae. The abdomen is heavily structured in black, but also reflecting other hints of light. The legs show a bright femural bands, with the hind legs probably more massively built than the front ones. All legs are hooved.
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