Pumpkin Beetles Like Gourds, Too! 黒瓜葉虫はヘチマもお好き！

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

At the beginning of this month, I wrote about pumpkin beetles (Aulacophora nigripennis) on flowers of Trichosanthes kirilowii (Chinese cucumber) and today, I found the beetles on sponge gourd flowers. These pumpkin beetles are known to be harmful to gourds and cucumbers, but not that so compared to red pumpkin beetles (i.e., Aulacophora femoralis).

A pumpkin beetle on a sponge gourd flower　ヘチマの花の上の黒瓜葉虫

Aulacophora Nigripennis on Bottle Gourd クロウリハムシとヘチマ

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I've been observing trees which I believe are bottle gourd for the last month to obtain evidence that they are really bottle gourd, not other gourds, such as cucumber, pumpkin or zucchini, and a few days ago, at last, I've got evidence, i.e., two bottle gourds hanging from one of the trees! And I also found this tiny but beautiful black and orange bug, Aulacophora nigripennis.

Aulacophora nigripennis on bottle gourd bud
ヘチマのつぼみとクロウリハムシ

One of the bottle gourds I found 見つけたヘチマの一つ

The other one 二本目

Bottle gourd flower へちまの花

I can't explain why but wanted badly evidence that they were really bottle gourd, but couldn't get any proof for more than a month, just finding yellow flowers, but it was worth to wait!! The 1cm bug holding on to the yellow bud was so kawaii!! 😊

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ウリ科の花は似ています。だからこの花もへちまと信じつつ、証拠をずっと探してました（つまり実がなるのを待ってました）。そして昨日やっと２本のヘチマを発見。しかもちっちゃい虫も！

クロウリハムシというそうです。害虫だそうですがしがみついている姿がカワイイ😊です。

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