Chrysomelinae, Latreille, 1802

Linzmeier, Adelita M., Moura, Luciano de A., Ribeiro-Costa, Cibele S., Manfio, Daiara, Agrain, Federico, Chamorro, Maria L., Morse, Geoffrey E., Regalin, Renato & Sekerka, Lukáš, 2024, An overview of the Brazilian Chrysomelidae (Insecta: Coleoptera): the most species-rich beetle family in Brazil, Zoologia (e 23092) 41, pp. 1-21 : 9-10

Chrysomelinae

Chrysomelinae Latreille, 1802 are a large subfamily with about 4,500 described species and subspecies ( Reid 2014b). Traditionally two tribes are recognized, Timarchini and Chrysomelini ; Chrysomelini are divided into numerous subtribes and even lower taxonomic categories (i.e., Seeno and Wilcox 1982). Based on recent molecular studies, the position of Timarchini is not fully resolved which have been recovered as sister to the chrysomeline clade ( Nie et al. 2020). Timarchini was also found as sister to remaining Chrysomelinae and Galerucinae or as sister to subtribe Chrysomelina ( Gómez-Zurita et al. 2008) . The latter study also supports monophyly of at least two other subtribes of Chrysomelinae , supporting the phylogeny by Takizawa (1976) which was based on larval characters, and also, suggest that Timarchini should be considered a separate subfamily. Phylogenetic studies based on adult morphological characters have not been attempted so far, probably because Chrysomelini adults are rather uniform. This is also reflected at genus level as many genera are subdivided into numerous subgenera with considerable numbers of transitional taxa.

Chrysomelinae have eruciform exophagous larvae. The majority of species are associated with eudicots, particularly Solanaceae in the New World (Jolivet 1988, Medeiros and Vasconcellos-Neto 1994). Chrysomelinae have worldwide distribution with some species reaching the Arctic Region. In contrast to other chrysomelids, most of their diversity is in temperate and drier subtropical areas. Nevertheless, the Neotropical fauna is species rich and currently includes about 1,400 species and subspecies, 519 of these occuring in Brazil. Neotropical chrysomelines were studied extensively by two authors who lived 100 years apart: Carl Stål and Jan Bechyně. Stål (1862 –1865)’s monograph on New World Chrysomelinae serves as the main reference for recognition of species today. Bechyně’ s studies (e.g., Bechyně 1954b, 1958, Bechyně and Bechyně 1969) on the Neotropical fauna built on Stål’s work and described numerous species. However, Bechyně often only used a poor set of characters to delimit individual taxa and therefore many subspecies might be invalid and may represent polymorphism or local variation. Stål and Bechyně are responsible for describing 375 (69%) Brazilian species and subspecies. The distribution of many chrysomeline species remain poorly known and are based on primary description only. The most species rich genus in Brazil is Platyphora Gistel, 1857 with 176 species and subspecies representing approximately 39% of the diversity of the genus worldwide. Recently, an illustrated catalog of the Chrysomelinae types housed in Northern Brazil collections and an illustrated key to the Brazilian genera were published ( Sampaio and Fonseca 2023, Sampaio et al. 2024). Studies on host plant association, biology, seasonal patterns of Brazilian species have significantly advanced our knowledge of Brazilian Chrysomelinae (e.g., Medeiros and Vasconcellos-Neto 1994, Vasconcellos-Neto and Jolivet 1994, Macedo et al. 1998, Flinte et al. 2017).