#mordella

[herpsandbirds]

Tumbling Flower Beetle (Mordella rufomaculata), family Mordellidae, Costa Rica

Photograph by Jose Alberto Cubero Guevara

[pickleweed2]

The Heart-Leaf Buckwheat, Eriogonum compositum, being visited by tumbling flower beetles, of Mordella sp

Six Rivers National Forest, California

[drhoz]

#3761 - Mordella promiscua

"Mixed little biter".

New Zealand has six species of Tumbling Flower Beetle, at least going by a 2012 revision of the fauna that among other things collapsed Mordella detracta, M. bella, M. elegantula, M. felix and M. limbata back into this species, and renamed to reflect its variability. It's native to the SE strip of Australia, and parts of New Zealand, but apparently its range in the later is expanding thanks to people.

Mordella larvae are borers in dead wood, and the adults usally seen feeding at flowers. The 'tumbling' part of the name comes from their habit of playing dead and falling to the ground if disturbed, and clumsy flight.

Woodhaugh Gardens, Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.