Ordinally posted: June 2, 2019
Cassidines are RAD! Affectionately known as tortoise beetles due to their shape, and the way they tuck in all of their appendages.
Cassidines not only look cool as adults, as larvae they make 'fecal shields' made of their own poo to hide from and deter predators...
Cassida vibex Larvae Via J.K Lindsey
One of the key things with Cassidines is that they lose their colour rapidly after death, meaning if you take them home to key them out they dont match any pictures, and really if you are using colouration and patternation (which is really handy in this group) its best you ID them while in the field (Cantharidae also benefit from this).
That's why I made this:
Its not perfect but it does the job
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