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Colaspis

Colaspis is a genus of leaf beetles in the subfamily Eumolpinae. It is one of the largest genera in the subfamily, containing over 200 species, and it is known from both North and South America. A number of species from this genus are considered to be pests, such as the grape colaspis (Colaspis brunnea). Some species are known from the fossil record from the Eocene of Colorado in the United States.

Taxonomy

In some publications for the Neotropical realm, Colaspis is also known as Maecolaspis. This alternative name was created by the Czech entomologist Jan Bechyné in 1950, due to an error relating to the type species of Colaspis: Bechyné incorrectly considered Colaspis testacea to be the type species of Colaspis, rather than Chrysomela flavicornis. As a result, Metaxyonycha, which shared the same type species, was synonymised with Colaspis. The species of Colaspis listed in the Coleopterorum Catalogus (a beetle catalog edited by Wilhelm Junk and Sigmund Schenkling) were then placed under Bechyné's new name, "Maecolaspis", with Chrysomela flavicornis as the type species. These errors were corrected by W. J. Brown in 1961, who synonymized Maecolaspis with Colaspis. Despite this, Bechyné continued to use Maecolaspis as valid, while Doris Holmes Blake published several papers on Colaspis without mentioning Bechyné's Maecolaspis. This effectively created two systems for the taxonomy of the Neotropical leaf beetles, which has frequently confused those studying the Neotropical Eumolpinae.

Many species originally placed in Colaspis were split by Bechyné into several smaller genera, such as Allocolaspis, Callicolaspis, Percolaspis, Nodocolaspis and Zenocolaspis. The genus requires further subdivision.

Species

These extant species belong to the genus Colaspis (= Maecolaspis):

These four extinct species belong to the genus Colaspis:

  • †Colaspis aetatis <small>Wickham, 1911</small>
  • †Colaspis diluvialis <small>Wickham, 1914</small>
  • †Colaspis luti <small>Scudder, 1900</small>
  • †Colaspis proserpina <small>Wickham, 1914</small>

Synonyms:

<small>Data sources: i = ITIS, c = Catalogue of Life, g = GBIF, b = Bugguide.net</small>

References

External links