Kuschelina floridana Blake 1954

Florida Flea Beetle

Florida native

Click on any image to open the slideshow

This small beetle is known to occur throughout the Florida peninsula. Some sources list this as a Florida endemic, others report that it is also found in Alabama and Georgia.
The Florida flea beetle is very small and brightly colored. The elytra have alternating bold black and yellow stripes running lengthwise separated by narrow white stripes. The head can be brown to black and the pronutum is brown or reddish and bordered in white. The antennae are dark and each is made up of 11 segments.
Host plants are members of the broom-rape family, Orobanchaceae, such as this beach false foxglove (Agalinis fasciculata).
One of the photos shows a buckeye butterfly egg. There was also a common buckeye (Junonia coenia) caterpillar on the false foxglove plants.

Kuschelina floridana is a member of the Chrysomelidae - Leaf Beetles family.

iNaturalist profile for this species

For more information on this species, visit the following link:
Bugguide.net page for this species

Date record last modified: Mar 04, 2023