Dogbane beetle

Description

Chrysochus auratus, the dogbane beetle, of eastern North America, is a member of the leaf beetle subfamily Eumolpinae. It is primarily found east of the Rocky Mountains. Its diet mainly consists of dogbane (Apocynum), specifically Apocynum cannabinum and Apocynum androsaemifolium, and occasionally it eats milkweed. It measures between 8 and 11 mm and has a convex, oval shape. The species is an iridescent blue-green with a metallic copper, golden or crimson shine. Dogbane beetles range from 8 to 11 mm in size, and they are oblong and convex shaped. The head contains two antennae that are widely set apart and located between the beetle's eyes. They are twelve-jointed with eleven segments, and the basal segment is shorter than that of the second segment. Because the Dogbane beetle's main source of food is dogbane leaves, they live in areas where this plant is abundant. This includes fields, forests, railroads etc. In turn, Dogbane beetles are also in these areas. However, the beetle cannot withstand all of the varied habitats like that of the Dogbane plant, so instead they are in places that are temperate and terrestrial while also containing the Dogbane plant. Dogbane beetles will live on the plant that they are eating. If the beetle depletes that resource, it may also move to another plant for both food and shelter. Chrysochus auratus is generally found in eastern North America, spanning the entire eastern United States and into adjacent southern Canada west of the Rocky Mountains. At the western edge of its range, it extends west of the Rocky Mountains into Arizona and Utah. The related species Chrysochus cobaltinus, in contrast, is found exclusively in western North America, and the two species were historically considered to have allopatric distributions. Recently, at least two narrow regions in western North America have been documented where both C. auratus and C. cobaltinus occur and apparently interbreed.