This is my entry for the thematic challenge in #amazingnature. I love nature and all things in nature are amazing to me. This tortoise beetle had me in admiration, wonder and in some confusion until I figured out its real identity. I still do not claim to have much information, but enough to know what it can do to my garden.
I first found these Tortoise beetle or the Indian green beetle - Chiridopsis bipunctata chiridopsis-bipunctataon my sweet potato vines while I was watering the plants about six months ago. The bright green color (almost florescent) of the tiny bug got my attention. However, before I could switch off the hose and get my camera the beetle had flown away.
I had been noticing a number of holes on the leaves of the vine for about a month then. I grow these sweet potato vines more for their beautiful leaves than the tuber itself. I usually give most of the tubers away to friends as my family doesn't enjoy sweet potatoes that much. Seeing the disfigured leaves troubled me a lot and I used my regular neem oil spray to keep away the pest feasting on those beautiful leaves. I didn't see any more new holes for a while.
Once again after a month or so I noticed these little beetles on my eggplants, these bugs cleverly hid behind the leaves. This time I had a closer look and decided that these guys were a close kin of the ladybugs and were probably eating up the real pests, so I let them be.
The vines were now dying due to the pests attacking them. No amount of liquid soap spray or neem oil sprays could get them off my beautiful plants. Finally I figured that it was these beetles that were doing the damage. Soon enough I had a chance to take photographs of these and check them out on Google. I did not find the answers I was looking for though there were many beetles like this one but not this exact one. I was relentless in my search, I needed some information about these beetles before I could get rid of them.
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Then I listed all the characteristics including the location and the host plant of this beetle and discovered that this was a common pest on potato and sweet potato vines. That solved the puzzle for me, I had very recently started growing these vines in my garden.
These beetles are basically leaf eaters and that live and multiply on the leaves of certain plants. They could cause a lot of damage to crops if not checked as they multiply in large numbers and in a short span of time.
When you find the leaves become like skeletons before your eyes, you'll know that the eggs have hatched and hundreds of larvae are doing the job of consuming the leaves in no time.
I am still trying to record the life cycle of these beetles by photographing them, as not much information is available about them. Sadly, I think I have got rid of them when I burned a huge bunch of infested parts of the vine. These beetles are about 3mm to 8mm long as far as I have noticed.
Right now my garden is free of this pest, though it is amazing to see these creatures wearing their PPE suits.
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