Morphological characteristic of leaf beetles subfamilies
Division of this group of flea beetles into separate subfamilies Galerucinae and Alticinae is now historical problem only. In recent classification of Chrysomelidae both groups are joined in a single subfamily (similar like Hispinae and Cassidinae are now joined in a single subfamily Cassidinae). Many genera are difficult to place in former Alticinae or Galerucinae and no single character can be use to identify both groups.
Hi Abdullah,
Please find attached link regarding to your request I hope it is useful
http://bugguide.net/node/view/13737
Also Abdullah you can have a look for the link attached which is very useful keys of classification.
Good luck
Ali
http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Chrysomelidae
Division of this group of flea beetles into separate subfamilies Galerucinae and Alticinae is now historical problem only. In recent classification of Chrysomelidae both groups are joined in a single subfamily (similar like Hispinae and Cassidinae are now joined in a single subfamily Cassidinae). Many genera are difficult to place in former Alticinae or Galerucinae and no single character can be use to identify both groups.
Does it means that Galerucinae and Alticinae is in the same subfamily now?
Dear Abdullah,
I also agree with Lech. Now there's no subfamily called Alticinae.
Best,
Tharindu
I agree with Lech - now Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae: Alticini and Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae: Galerucini. A rough separation can be made looking at the rear legs - if these are large and swollen, it is probably an alticine (flea beetle due to its jumping ability). As Lech says "Many genera are difficult to place in former Alticinae or Galerucinae and no single character can be use to identify both groups".
Please refer to the specific literature: there are many publications and keys available on this topic.
Jumping hind legs are NOT good enough.
Concerning the distinction of the two "subfamilies": Lech Borowiec is absolutely right. Flea beetles (all the genera that have a metafemoral jumping apparatus) are now usually treated as a tribe within Galerucinae, even though they are clearly not monophyletic. There is now plenty of evidence suggesting that this jumping apparatus evolved multiple times within Galerucinae, but it's still not exactly clear how many times. Due to the enormously high diversity in this group (14'000+ species in Galerucinae "s.lat."), it's still difficult to come up with a more phylogenetic classification at the tribal level. A first step is this recent paper with a molecular phylogeny of some genera (but with a limited taxon sampling):
Article The phylogeny of Galerucinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and...
This suggests that most of the "traditional" Alticinae can actually be maintained as a tribe, but some genera (such as Luperomorpha, Hespera and Nonarthra) will have to be removed. The tribes traditionally recognised within Galerucinae s. str. (Luperini, Metacyclini, Galerucini, Hylaspini) are more problematic, and need some major re-shuffling.
For practical purposes: If the hind femora are much larger than the other two pairs of femora, it's one of the "alticine" genera. If the hind femora are about the same thickness as the rest, check in Galerucinae (in old sense). At least, that limits the number of choices within each geographic area if you're trying to identify something!
A few Asian genera are not easily placed in either of the groups, because the hind femora are only slightly inflated (Mandarella, Mistika, plus some Luperomorpha and Hespera)...
Unfortunately, there is currently no key that would allow to identify the Galerucinae (incl. Alticini) genera in Malaysia or Indonesia. The existing keys for Indochina (Kimoto 1989, 2000, Medvedev 2009) only cover a part of the genera, but there is a large number of Malaysian genera which are not found North of the Istmus of Kra, and therefore not included in the Indochina-keys.
Furthermore, there are still many genera that need to be re-defined, and may get either synonymised or split up as soon as somebody studies them properly.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Zoology
- Invertebrate Zoology
- Entomology