I found this beetle in  our yard in Clifton, VA. The beetle came out of our flower bed next to the house. I think it is a Spotted Pelidnota. Other names for this beetle includes grapevine beetle or spotted June beetle. I think it is a female because this beetle was light-colored.

Not sure what this insect larva is. Thought it might be related to monarchs. Hadn’t seen one like it in the

park. UPDATE! Thanks to John White he correctly identified this beast as a Grapevine Epimenis (Psychomorpha epimenis). Thanks John!

Observed this pair on a trail not here in Clifton but at River Bend park near Great Falls.  

Clif Fairweather, a Naturalist with Audobon Naturalist Society, responded to this post  suggesting “that the little beetle might be taking cantharidin from the blister beetle toincorporate into its own chemical defense” Whatever the intent was of the little beatle attached to larger one it struck me as some sort of strange symbiosis