They look like the soldier beetles mating at What's that Bug? about 2/3s of the way down the page. The color and the number of body-segments are similar. But other pictures elsewhere of soldier bugs show a different-looking beetle. I guess you just have to hunt around until you find a match.

I'm a bit late to answer, I know, but it might be interesting to note that snails and slugs love artichokes ! I have planted 12 artichokes, far apart one from the other, and they are fighting to survive against the snails and slugs. Ferramol the little buggers don't find it tasty enough. My ripe strawberries they don't give a rat's butt. Obviously the weeds they are fed up with. But the artichokes they are mad of them ! Gourmet meal ! Even the big hard leaves ! So I had to buy grounded coffee, kilos of it, and to make a ring around the artichokes. I sort of mulched around the plant and the circle is about 60 cm in diameter. I wish I had stock in starbuck because me alone have helped their business a lot ! Oh, there's hand picking as well, which I used to do at 6 in the morning, when only the artichokes were planted. Now I have to water the 50 tomatoes and 10 zucchinis and 5 squash (the lattest being a tasty meal for the snails too apparently ! ) so there's no time to pick the buggers before work any more ! Good luck ! Enjoy it that you're not here in the South of France where we have billions of little white snails called "limacon" ! They are so numerous that they stiffle whole big trees in summer when they stuck on them to avoid the hot soil !

Oh thank you all so much!! Miss sherry, I only have one citrus tree actually planted in yard so far, it was here already and it's a Washington navel dwarf, and thought it was dead after all the freezes last winter and all the cats eating leaves,but recently a few shoots of new leaves started growing out from root, original tree (it's tiny) is all dead wood so idk what's going on with the new stems popping up, they are kind of on side right next to the "dead" stems. I need to plant something and get it established before I get bombarded with eggs next summer! Thanks for the coffee suggestions!! I always have coffee around so will try tomorrow!! Thanks again everyone!! So far looks like all of the cats are okay with the lime, had a few that wandered around for a few hours, I guess looking for lemon leaves. Lol, I had one 5th instar a while back, moved him indoors to feed him older satsuma leaves and leave new growth on lemon for the little cats, he had just molted into last instar, and anyway, moved him in, he didn't eat satsuma leaves or the orange leaves I tried and then he made his sling and pupated, never even purged, never ate one bite after molting last time, but he eclosed just fine and flew right off after a couple hours!! Guess he just didn't like change! �;-) I swear there must kit be a ctrr

Don't worry about the blackened leaf edges. You can remove them when the plant gets bigger and has other leaves. I've got one plant with such horrible slug damage: they ate it down to the center vein on a large leaf too! But it's coming along fine. Keep up the slug bait. I've been at it weekly or more after a rain and the results are great! The new sprout bitten off is a tough one to figure. Is it still showing a stem? Leaves? This happened to one of mine, something bit all foliage off just a two inch tall sprig. Thereafter, the plant went nowhere so I dug up the tuber. That bitten sprig was dying- going nowhere- but the tuber was already kicking out a substitute eye. With the bitten one cut off at the tuber, I left the new shoot and replanted. It has now rebroken ground and doing well. Maybe you can describe the amount of bite damage a bit more, that might help bring on some advice or experience.