Help Needed To I.D. This Critter

[Doug Yanega]

>It's been a long while since I posted anything to this list. . . . A 
>friend of mine in St. Petersburg, Florida, is an avid palm 
>enthusiast and has an incredible collection that is the envy of such 
>giants as Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Coral Gables. Recently, he 
>send me a picture of what he thinks is one of the case-bearer moths 
>(family Coleophoridae) and asked for my assistance in helping to 
>identify it. I'm stumped. Can anyone help with the identification? 
>Go to this URL:
>
><http://www.caloosabirdclub.org/VPL/unknown1.jpg>http://www.caloosabirdclub.org/VPL/unknown1.jpg
>
>Here's what my friend has to say about this mystery critter:
>
>"These twig-like protrusions (see attachment) on the trunk of a palm 
>eventually move if you wait long enough, or watch from day to day. 
>They are about 1/8 inch diameter and 1 inch long. There is 
>definitely a caterpillar inside. The little critter is found on one 
>and only one Foxtail Palm (Wodyetia bifurcata), an Austraian native. 
>The tree iuner [sic] study is approximately 15 yrs old from seed. 
>It is the only palm of approximately 50+ species in the yard, 
>including another Wodyetia about 20 ft away, that is hosting the 
>critters.  The critters stay only on the grey wood and do not 
>venture onto the crownshaft."

Actually, I think it's a Chrysomelid beetle case - something in the 
Chlamisinae or Lamprosomatinae - and it could well be imported. What 
I would suggest is to mark the cases, and watch for ones that stay in 
one spot for a day or two; assume they've pupated, and remove them to 
a container where the emerging adult can be prevented from escaping.

Peace,
-- 

Doug Yanega        /Dept. of Entomology         /Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521-0314
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
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