That's a scare!

I looked around a bit too and it seems that other members of the Lily Beetle's subfamily (Criocerinae) that do that with their excrement too. Two for sure are the Asparagus Beetle (Criocerus asparagi) and the Three-Lined Potato Beetle (Lema daturophila). It doesn't say that the other family members' larvae don't share this habit, it just doesn't give as much information.

They all seem fairly host-specific so I think and hope that a true lily beetle would have eaten all the lilies in her garden before moving to a chinese lantern.

Thanks Gillian,

We found adults matching the description of the three lined potato beetle on the plants but no where were we able to identify them on the net. What ugly little larvae though, carrying their 'poop' on the top of their bodies. One site said that the beetle uses what it can and the poisons and what it can't use of the stuff it eats goes into the excretment and up on top of their backs. yuck!

One web site had said that the lily beetle eats lilies, frittilaria and other plants. We didn't know what the other plants were and couldn't identify the little adult mating bugs on the plants. Thanks Gil, now we don't have to worry as much. (Would still be good to get rid of these though).

Now she has to check her thousands of hills of potatoes for these bugs. Great, something else to do!!! She does the farmer's market in the town she lives close to and sells a lot of potatoes there.

Brenda

Well that's a relief - sort of - potato beetles are still a nuisance but we are SUPPOSED to be free of the dreaded lily beetle so thank goodness it wasn't that!

And yeah - putting poop on yourself - gross! LOL

Yes, carrying around your poop is really gross! But, on the other hand, if you were a bird, would you want to eat him??!! Personally, if I were a bird, I'd move to on to more tasty morsels!lol