Beetle?

I think this is a beetle, it had wings, was only about 2mm in size
taken with Tamron 90mm + manual tubes
1/60,iso 100

Certainly looks like a beetle.

You need a flash diffuser. There's a guy down South who makes some quite interesting ones. He posts here occasionally.

G

It's certainly beetle shaped but I can't recall ever seeing a beetle with hairs on its shell before - excellent capture of a very unusual subject!

looks like a ladybird doing a hedgehog impression to me.

what a strange creature!

Nice shot Don. It looks like a miniature wombat
How did you find it :

We have a plant in the garden that seams to attract an immense variety of insects to it's orange flowers, this was one of them.

Here's a book to look out for:

Ślipiński A. 2007. Australian Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) Their biology and classification. Australian Biological Resources Study. col. illus. 288 pp.

This book, by Australia’s ladybird beetle specialist, Dr Adam Ślipiński, illustrates Australia’s diverse and fascinating ladybird beetle fauna — the commoner spotted species and the many others that are striped, glossy, and even very hairy.

( http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/publications/other/coccinelids.h... )

Dan

w00t, score one for the Mongoose

I didn't say it was a ladybird, just infered it might be.

There's actually a surprising number of hairy beetles about, but you don't normally notice them. My favourite is Agapanthea villosoviridescens.




Dan

Thanks for all the input, looking at some beetle sites today and I think it's one of the leaf beetles.