Psychedelic Spirit

Frog-legged leaf beetle (Sagra buqueti)

Every Thursday on The Field Museum’s Facebook page, entomologist and insect collections manager James Boone (who can be seen in this episode of The Brain Scoop, and in this video from The Field Revealed series) features a mind-blowingly amazing invertebrate for your enjoyment. I’ve yet to capture the insects in photograph as well as Daniel Le, so I’m totally just reposting this from over there — but be sure to check it out, and stay tuned for more soon!

Named because the back legs resemble those of a frog, it’s a member of the order Coleoptera, family Chrysomelidae, Sagra buqueti. Sagras do not jump but their strong, oversized hind legs along with dense hairs are used to hold the stems of their food plant while they eat. This beetle is metallic green with a red and gold band running along the inside margins of the elytra (the hard, outer-wing shells that encase the fragile, functional wings underneath [EG]). Frog-legged leaf beetles can be found in Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and Philippines.