Eucalyptus Tortoise Beetle
Trachymela sloanei · Beetles
Eucalyptus Tortoise Beetle on a palm frond
San Diego Botanic Garden, 7 March 2026
Back outside the butterfly enclosure, on an ordinary garden palm. The Eucalyptus Tortoise Beetle is an Australian leaf beetle that arrived in California in the late 1990s with the eucalyptus it feeds on and is now common wherever those trees are planted, which in San Diego is everywhere. The palm is just somewhere to sit.
The domed, tan shell speckled with fine dark dots and the legs tucked in close to the body are the marks. Like a real tortoise it can clamp the shell down flat against a surface hard enough to resist being simply pulled off.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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