I just came across these two observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/253816599
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144418570
if you look at them side by side (best done by saving and cropping both images), it looks like it’s the EXACT same specimen. I mean seriously, look at the edges of the white highlights. they match up perfectly! Even the dimples on the pronotum line up. They were also taken in the same area but with 10 months difference by two different people.
I wanted to share this wild coincidence with others but I also wanted to ask if it’s possible that it isn’t a coincidence but rather that they are simply very closely related. Is it possible for these patterns to be passed on in such a precise manner?
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I don’t know about the pattern inheritance, but I worked with someone who did some mark and recapture with Cephaloleia leaf beetles in Costa Rica and he saw some of them again over a year later, so I think it’s definitely possible these two observations are the same individual.
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Why not? Leopards can be recognised by an individual’s spots, as can our penguins compare to this one. Whales by their tail flukes.
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It’s definitely the same individual, the number of details of the pattern that I’m seeing cannot be replicated to that precision in different individuals.
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I’ve seen people iNatting the very same bush with pretty yellow flowers, I uploaded a year before. So definitely possible that it is the same individual
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