Flea beetle
Aphthona flava
The flea beetle ( Alticinae ) are a subfamily of the leaf beetle.
Features
A typical feature of these beetles is the greatly enlarged posterior femur (one of the upper leg sections of arthropods ). With this, they can, if they are disturbed, about to jump to 100 times their body length. This behavior has earned them their German name.
There are small to medium-sized beetles, which are usually between 2 mm and 4 mm long. There is, however, smaller (up to 1 mm) and significantly greater (up to 20 mm) species. In outline, the beetles are usually short oval. The elytra have a wide variety of colors, but are almost always metallic iridescent. Many species also have two stripes or some points on the elytra.
Way of life
The individual flea beetle species are mostly specialized to a single or a few closely related plant species. The adults typically eat small round to oval holes in the leaves of their host plant.
Typically, the Imagines overwinter under leaves or in dead plant parts. In the spring or late summer, females lay their eggs on the bottom of a host plant. The larvae then feed on the summer of the same roots. In late summer, the next generation of imagoes is then created.
Genera, species, distribution
The Flea Beetles are the most diverse subfamily of the leaf beetle. The number of classes is estimated to be 550, the number of species to about 10,000.
They are widespread with over 560 genera worldwide. Particularly rich in species is the Neotropics. They occur in almost all habitats. The following generic list of Palaearctic fauna follows Konstantinv and Vandenberg
- Altica
- Anthobiodes
- Aphthona
- Aphthonaltica
- Aphthonoides
- Apteropeda
- Argopistes
- Argopus
- Arrhenocoela
- Batophila
- Blepharida
- Chaetocnema
- Clitea
- Crepidodera
- Derocrepis
- Dibolia
- Epitrix
- Hemipyxis
- Hermaeophaga
- Hespera
- Hippuriphila
- Horaia
- Hyphasis
- Lipromima
- Liprus
- Longitarsus
- Luperomorpha
- Lythraria
- Manobia
- Mantura
- Meis Hania
- Minota
- Mniophila
- Neocrepidodera
- Nonarthra
- Novofoudrasia
- Ochrosis
- Oedionychis
- Ogloblinia
- Omeisphaera
- Ophrida
- Orestia
- Parargopus
- Pentamesa
- Philopona
- Phygasia
- Kohlerdflöhe ( Phyllotreta )
- Podagrica
- Podagricomela
- Podontia
- Pseudodera
- Flea beetles ( Psylliodes )
- Sangariola
- Sinaltica
- Sphaeroderma
- Trachyaphthona
- Xuthea
- Zipangia