Bulbinella cauda-felis with Disonycha-type beetle

The beetle looking for food on this Bulbinella cauda-felis raceme in the Biedouw Valley resembles the pigweed flea beetle or Disonycha glabrata, but that species is said to only occur in North America.

If Columbus could do it, why would beetles not venture to unknown destinations and enter wherever without knocking? Maybe the adventurous section of the Disonycha family has already undergone some speciation adaptations before, during or after globetrotting trips, however contrived, and became something else in these parts.

Why would pioneering confidence surging into colonising chutzpah characterise some species only? The earth belongs to all with the courage or ignorance to claim it. There are large numbers of leaf beetles of the Galerucinae subfamily (and many others) who wriggle, munch and fly around South African plants with or without formal identities in books, living far away from the centres of endemism where their ancestors started off.

Viruses spread around the globe in explosive haste with the help of people who neither wanted to oblige nor anticipated the significance of their actions. Weed plant invaders grow forest-sized monuments to human error in so many wrong places. So, why would insects, the major part of the animal kingdom, not put their stamp on the global village as well?

The story holds, even if this beetle has another name or no name yet (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Holm, 2008; Manning, 2007; iNaturalist; Wikipedia).