False Potato Beetle

The following subject is seasonally inappropriate, but I came across my mystery moon-grub photo and finally looked it up at BugGuide.net. And - pleasant surprise - it led me to properly I.D. a beetle I also photographed this summer:

This is the larva of a False Potato Beetle, Leptinotarsa juncta, in the Leaf Beetle family. It reminds me of the moon, above, which I photographed the same evening that I found this little blob under the arbor.

These feed on horse-nettle, Solanum carolinense, other solanaceous (?) plants, such as species of ground cherry or husk tomato, Physalis spp., and common nightshade, Solanum dulcamara. (Mine must have been going for nightshade.)

Below is the adult, which looks very similar to the misnamed Colorado Potato Beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, but the False has some brown striping on the wings that the Colorado does not. (Sorry about the less than sharp photo, but he was scurrying up and down the ninebark shrub as if I had a jar of ether for him.)

A bit of advice for other beginning naturalists: check at least two, maybe three different guides or resources before you determine identification of most creatures, especially invertebrates.
Be alert, of course, and don't let anyone tell you a turkey vulture is a red-tailed hawk.  ; - ]

Song for this day: The Jam “Bitterest Pill”