{"id":5382,"date":"2015-02-27T14:25:31","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T19:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/?page_id=5382"},"modified":"2025-06-10T16:32:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T20:32:39","slug":"tortoise-beetles","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/fact-sheets\/common-name-listing\/tortoise-beetles\/","title":{"rendered":"Tortoise Beetles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"photo<\/a>
Clavate Tortoise Beetle<\/strong>\u00a0(Plagiometriona clavata<\/em>; some sources: Helocassis clavata<\/i>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tortoise beetles<\/strong> are small beetles that resemble miniature turtles.\u00a0 They are rarely found in high numbers in home gardens, so their feeding is primarily cosmetic.\u00a0 You’ll find them on plants in the Convolvulaceae<\/em> family (morning glories, bindweeds, etc.) as well as the Solanaceae\u00a0<\/em>family (e.g. potatoes, jimsonweed, groundcherries, tomatoes and peppers).\u00a0 The larvae of these beetles use their own frass and debris as a way of protecting and disguising themselves against potential predators (see an example in the second photo below)<\/em>, and they can even raise the entire mass up and onto themselves from a special structure at the tip of their abdomen (first photo below shows the pile of frass in the \u2018lowered\u2019 or flipped-down position)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\t\t