The second of the two major families in the superfamily Chrysomeloidea is the eponymous Chrysomelidae, the leaf beetles. This individual is Labidomera clavivollis - Swamp Milkweed Beetle. It's taxonomy is as follows
Coleoptera<Superfamily Chrysomeloidea<Family Chrysomelidae<Subfamily Chrysomelinae<Labidomera clavicollis
The leaf beetles are, in terms of patterning, one of the most diverse groups of beetles out there. They range from drab, brown and skinny to brightly colored and circular to metallic greens and blues and everything in between. It's a large family and has many different subfamilies, most of which are fairly disparate in their appearance. It's very hard though to give a hard and fast rule to separate them out without getting more techincal than this description warrants. In general though, if it's smallish, brightly colored or heavily patterned there's a pretty good chance that it's a Chrysomelid. Hopefully by the end of this series on families you'll be able to differentiate between the exceptions to this rule.
As can be guessed by their name, Chrysomelids feed on vegetation of various kinds, and often have a host plant that they are commonly found on. The leaf above that the Swamp Milkweed Beetle is on is in fact from Swamp Milkweed. This can greatly expedite identifications if you know the plant you found it on, especially for a species with great phenotypic (appearance) variation like this one.
In short, they're small, cute and colorful, but a ID'ing 'em is a pain in the
Comments