Friends in My Garden- 44

Two bugs

Two guests from my garden that are not so welcome. They are pests of my plants…

Pest on eggplant

These are pictures of a pest on Brinjal or Eggplant- Coccinellid beetle (Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata). These bugs eat away the green portions resulting in the skeletonizing and drying of the leaves. The bugs are of 5-6 mm in size. They are also named as ’28-spotted potato ladybird’.

Now certain bugs on Curry leaf plants.
These appear to be new entrants as I have never seen them before! These pictures show the larvae and adult of Tortoise Beetle (Silana farinosa) that damage the plants by skeletonizing the leaves. The bug may be 5-6 mm long.

Larvae have a deceptive shape. The globose structure is the poo carried by the larvae, mostly to scare away the enemies!

Larvae

Adult tortoise beetle

Friends in My Garden- 43

Katydid

Katydid- female

Katydid or long-horned grasshopper….  The species is green and grows to one and a half to two inches in length. The forewings have “veins” that resemble the veins of leaves, helping to disguise the insect. The filamentous antennae can even exceed their body length.

I found these on my geranium plants and looks like they like to eat geranium leaves.
The first picture is that of a female Katydid with a brown coloured structure, the ‘ovipositor’, clearly visible. This structure helps the female to stick her eggs together in clusters.

The male  is shown in the second picture. Poor guy, he has lost one of his hind legs!

Katydids can make shrill sound by rubbing special structures on their forewings together.

Male