Marginated

Some discoveries do not fill me with something approaching joy, but when I discovered this rather rotund beetle defoliating a prized Clematis that was awaiting better weather for being transferred from pot to the garden, well, I'm glad I didn't act on first impulse and simply crush the insect. I wasn't precisely sure of its identity, but I had a notion that it might have been one of the Blister Beetles, a rather remarkable group capable of spraying a hot chemical from their hindquarters that can blister skin. It's a formidable defense, but I had other ways of eliminating the offenders without doing damage to my hands... and without letting the beetles do any more damage to my plants. Besides, I really wanted to figure out just who this pest was. The verdict: it's a Margined Blister Beetle, a.k.a. Epicauta funebris. It's a well-known problem species on alfalfa hay and many other plants, including, alas, Clematis. Duly chronicled, this one, at least, will plague me no longer.