Dotted paropsine leaf beetle
Paropsis atomaria
Name means: “speckled or freckled (the Latin name atomaria)”
The dotted paropsine leaf beetle is a common Australian leaf beetle. Its scientific name means speckled or freckled, because of the tiny dots on its back. It munches the leaves of trees.
Lives in
Eastern Australia from Adelaide to Brisbane, and now also the west coast of North America
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. Just watch it munching on a leaf.
What does it eat?
It eats the leaves of trees, and sometimes the trees that people grow in plantations.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Dotted paropsine leaf beetle about 0.5 km/h (0.31 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
A female can lay up to 600 eggs, which she places at the tip of a leaf or twig.
2
Usually two families of babies grow up in one summer.
3
It is one of the few beetles of its group that can become a pest in tree plantations.
you asked
Most asked questions about Dotted paropsine leaf beetle
?Is the dotted paropsine leaf beetle dangerous?
No. It is harmless to people, but it can harm young trees.
?Where does it live?
In eastern Australia, and it has also been carried to the west coast of North America.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Paropsis atomaria
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Chrysomelidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania, North America
Where the facts come from
- Paropsis atomaria (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Damian Harding. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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