While those species stick to the lowlands of savannahs ... Tweed had never seen a longhorn beetle like this one before, with spindly white hairs sprouting from all over its body.

Caroline Chaboo’s eyes light up when she talks about tortoise beetles. Like gems, they exist in myriad bright colors: shiny blue, red, orange, leaf green and transparent flecked with gold.

Pupation lasts a month. The adult overwinters, then emerges in the spring. The beetles will then feed on sap. This species is a member of the family Cerambycidae - the longhorn beetles, characterised ...