A Flying Cucumber (Beetle)

You usually see them crawling around, but never about to fly.

The Western spotted cucumber beetles (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) is one of California's most common insects. And though quite attractive in coloring, it's a major agricultural pest.

"Come in, my pretty," is probably what a witch would say during the Halloween season.

Retired UC Berkeley entomologist Jerry Powell, in his book, California Insects (co-authored by Charles Hogue), describes the adult as "bright green with six variable black spots on each wing cover and variable amounts of black on (the) legs and underside."

"They eat leaves and flowers of all kinds except conifers; (they're) particularly abundant on plants of the squash family."

They're found throughout California, except at the highest elevations, he says.

But have you ever seen this insect take flight? 

We recently watched a spotted cucumber beetle crawl beneath a tangerine leaf and vanish. Suddenly, like a submarine periscope, its antennae appeared, twitchy rapidly. Then its head popped up.

That huge dark object (camera!) startled it, though. It took flight, landing a few feet away on the sidewalk.

With its wing covers open, it looked very much like a polka-dotted airplane on a runway.