Our insect of the week for September 22, 2025 is the striped blister beetle, Epicauta vittata. This species was described by Fabricius (a student of Linnaeus) in 1775. We have been focused on blister beetles this month. Although this species feeds on grasshopper eggs as a larvae, it is considered an agricultural pest because the adults feed on plants. They tend to prefer plants in the family Solanaceae (potatoes and relatives). They will also eat beans, carrots, corn and many other plants. Similar to other blister beetles, it produces cantharadin which can injure livestock when they consume plants and the insects also feeding on the plants (and you may have thought cattle were only herbivores – yep they should be considered omnivores since they also eat a lot of insects which happen to be on the plants they are eating).

The specimen in this stacked photograph (generated from stacking multiple images together with slightly different focal points) was collected by Mark DuBois in Peoria County, Illinois (July, 2006). In addition to the featured image showing the dorsum of the beetle, the images below represent lateral view and view of the head.