Chrysochus cobaltinus (Cobalt Leaf Beetle)

K

kellakk

L2
I found a group of these beautiful beetles on milkweed while I was out hunting. Has anyone had experience rearing them? I've so far fed them only on milkweed (which they absolutely destroy), but can they be reared on other plants?

 
It's probably dogbane that they are eating, it looks very similar to milkweed.

Those beetles live almost exclusively on dogbane. I would stick with that.

Those are awesome beetles!

You should wash your hands before eating after handling dogbane, it is a poisonous plant.

 
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LarvaHunter said:
It's probably dogbane that they are eating, it looks very similar to milkweed.

Those beetles live almost exclusively on dogbane. I would stick with that.

Those are awesome beetles!

You should wash your hands before eating after handling dogbane, it is a poisonous plant.
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No, it's definitely milkweed that they're eating. There's a bunch of Asclepias fascicularis in my area and the beetles love eating it.

Amici Con Coleotteri said:
Wish I had some info for you. Do you have any pics?
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I don't currently have pics, but I'll take some and show them soon. Thanks for the reply though.

 
The fact that they are eating milkweed instead of just dogbane, is a good sign that it will accept other plants.

You can run an experiment and put several separate different piles of plants that are easy for you to access, and see which they choose.

 
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I just found one on a bush in my backyard, do not know what type of bush though. How do you feed them? Do you have to have them on a live plant or can they live on cuttings?

 
Hisserdude said:
I just found one on a bush in my backyard, do not know what type of bush though. How do you feed them? Do you have to have them on a live plant or can they live on cuttings?
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I've been feeding them with cuttings. With one, a live plant would be ok but they're just about as destructive as a phasmid so too many would strip the plant.

 
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