Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Red Turnip Beetle

These beetles are so tiny, but always look so bright and beautiful when seen large! Today, I attended an excellent one-day Photography Course put on for the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park (FFCPP). Part of the course in the afternoon was to spend about two and a half hours wandering around the area near the Visitor's Centre and the Ranch. We were to take photos, keeping in mind some of the things we had learned in the morning. These are five of the photos I took and I will upload a few more next time.

I was on a trip this afternoon south of the city, walking some interesting hills at a place called Nodwell Sanctuary. A first, distant glimpse made us think we had come across some Ladybugs, but we quickly realized we had something else. The Red Turnip Beetle is a native North American insect. Adult beetles are bright red with black patches on their heads and three distinct black bands running down their backs. Crop injury in canola, rapeseed, or mustard fields usually occurs along field margins when beetles move in after cruciferous plants in adjacent fields are either consumed or controlled. Adult beetles normally walk to the new food source. Invading beetles are usually concentrated in a moving front only a few metres wide.