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What is the name of this little beetle?

Mystery beetle on a suqash plant

As you can see in the bottom right, the leaves of my two week old squash plant have big gaping holes with bite marks in them. Could he and his friends be the ones that have been devouring my plant basically overnight? Or could there be another culprit that's eating my squash plants' leaves, and seeming to leave most other plants alone?

To help narrow things down, this guy was found in middle of Illinois (a tiny town in the middle of a bunch of corn and soy fields) and that photograph was taken this morning (the beginning of June).

IQAndreas
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2 Answers2

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I tried to find out what this was because I thought I saw something similar yesterday in my yard but after looking at pictures what I had wasn't this but I found mine.

Your looks like Poecilocapsus lineatus aka a Fourlined Plant Bug. It does eat plant leaves so it's possible it is eating your squash plant.

You can find more info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poecilocapsus_lineatus and info and pictures at http://bugguide.net/node/view/546225/bgimage

OrganicLawnDIY
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I think it is a grasshopper, one of the many species. You see clearly the long leg, used to jump.

Grasshoppers eat vegetables, but it seems a too high damage for such small grasshopper. Maybe there are much more (and also bigger/adults). Or the large damages are done by other bugs.

Birds like to eat them (but if these are the vegetarian one, which like to eat your salads).

Giacomo Catenazzi
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