The Blue Metallic Flea Beetle …..Altica pagana

These small beetles are Altica pagana of the family Chrysomellidae (known as Leaf beetles) . They have the rather prosaic, though descriptive, common name of Blue Mettalic Flea Beetle. The 'flea' part of the name alludes to their ability to jump. As you can see, they are brilliant in colour, like little iridescent jewels. They are also quite small at around 5mm in length. They had formed an aggregation of at least 150 beetles all within a half metre of each other. They were mostly in 3 large groups and several small groups as well a few individuals scattered here and there. They were on a piece of treated pine which forms the edge of a pathway. I have no idea why they had formed an aggregations like this. Insects aggregate for many different reasons. They did not appear to be mating. One possibility is that they had just emerged and climbed the nearest object prior to dispersal.

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