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Mani Mua
Identification request
2019-04-23T04:59:59.1076178Z
   3
Requesting possible ID for Beetle/weevil on Lantana weed
Dear Pestnetters Kindly requesting any possible ID for the beetle-like insect feeding on Lantana leaves. Also if this is a known or potential biocontrol. Many thanks Mani
Biocontrol
Fiji
Lantana
2
3733

Responses

jdyoung128@gmail.com
   0
2019-04-27T10:29:14.4024250Z

Chrysomelidae; Cassidinae; Chalpini

does not match images I can find of the 2 species listed in Bryant and Gressitte 1957 https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/8611

Grahame Jackson
   0
2019-04-27T14:00:00.0000000Z

Mani

We think this is Octotoma girardi. The larvae mine the leaves

Some comments from Chris Reid: 

See this fact sheet from Australia: https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/69827/IPA-Lantana-Biocontrol-2.pdf

It's also been released in South Africa https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/016788099190139O

However looking up O. girardi on Google images gives a Cook Islands specimen which looks like yours http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org/results.asp?search=true&searchLanguage=all&strictSearchLanguage=False&page=1&ebg=girardi&Submit=Search&BiologicalGroup=&Country=zCKzz&displaymode=imagelist&resultsPerPage=20&Origin=&Habitat=&Area=&Present=0&PosSig=&NegSig=&Endangered=

It is not particularly effective for the control of Lantana

Octotoma_girardi_