Blepharida-group beetles (Galerucinae)

I am interested in the biological, chemical and co-evolutionary connections across three trophic levels – host plants (Anacardiaceae, Burseraceae, and Solanaceae), chrysomelid herbivores, and their beetle parasitoids (Carabidae: Lebiini). The San Bushmen in southern Africa, drawing on cultural hunting knowledge thousands of years old, use the body fluids (“hemolymph”) of leaf beetles to as a poison on their hunting arrows.

Chaboo collecting the beetle larvae with San Bushman, Kalahari, Namibia

Preparing poison-arrows in Kalahari, Namibia.

Read more:
Chaboo, C.S., M. Biesele, R.K. Hitchcock, & A. Weeks. 2016. Beetles and plant arrow poisons of the Ju|hoan and Hai||om San peoples of Namibia (Insecta, Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae; Plantae, Anacardiaceae, Apocynaceae, Burseraceae). ZooKeys 558: 9–54. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.558.5957.