The ugly larvae, part two

As larvae, tortoise beetles are made distinctly unattractive by the amalgamation of frass and shed skins that they hide beneath.

A green tortoise beetle larva with its fecal shield.

Yet, the beetles undergo a remarkable change when they metamorphose into adults.

A golden tortoise beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata).

Even having seen pictures of the adults beforehand, I was stunned when I saw the shining beetles in the backyard one evening.

A golden tortoise beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata) showing some orange coloration.

That evening, there were many tortoise beetles on the bindweed around the garden and they were from at least two different species.

A mottled tortoise beetle (Deloyala guttata).

However, by the next day, all the adults were gone.  I thought that they might just have gone into hiding for the daytime, but they had not returned to the bindweed by the time I checked again in the evening -- or any time later.  They had left something of themselves behind, though!

Tortoise beetle eggs attached to the underside of a bindweed leaf.

A few days later, the larvae began appearing and were soon devouring all the bindweed.