The Cryptocephalinae are a subfamily of the leaf beetles (
Chrysomelidae
The insects of the beetle family Chrysomelidae are commonly known as leaf beetles, and include over 37,000 (and probably at least 50,000) species in more than 2,500 genera, making up one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle ...
), and belong to the group of case-bearing leaf beetles called the
Camptosomata
Camptosomata are the case-bearing leaf beetles or camptosomates, named for their larval habit of carrying a case of waste material. This group consists of two subfamilies of Chrysomelidae (leaf beetles): Lamprosomatinae and Cryptocephalinae (whi ...
.
The tribes
Fulcidacini
The Fulcidacini, sometimes known as the warty leaf beetles, are a tribe within the leaf beetle subfamily Cryptocephalinae, though historically they were often treated as a distinct subfamily, Chlamisinae. 11 genera with altogether about 400 s ...
and
Clytrini
The Clytrini are a tribe within the leaf beetle subfamily Cryptocephalinae, though historically they were often treated as a distinct subfamily, Clytrinae. As the other Cryptocephalinae, they belong to the group of case-bearing leaf beetles know ...
were formerly considered subfamilies of their own, and are presently treated only as tribes.
Species in at least 14 genera of Clytrini and Cryptocephalini are myrmecophilous, living with ants.
[Agrain F.A., M. Buffington, C.S. Chaboo, M.L. Chamorro, & M.E. Schöller. 2015. Leaf beetles are ant-nest beetles: the curious life histories of the juvenile stages of case-bearers (Chrysomelidae: Cryptocephalinae). ZooKeys 547:133–164.]
File:Exema larval case.jpg, ''Exema
''Exema'' is a genus of leaf beetles in the tribe Fulcidacini. They occur worldwide, with 9 species in North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is b ...
'', fecal case
File:Exema larva.jpg, ''Exema'', larva
File:Neochlamisus larval case.jpg, ''Neochlamisus
''Neochlamisus'' is a genus of leaf beetles in the tribe Fulcidacini (the warty leaf beetles). They are members of the case-bearing leaf beetle group, the Camptosomata. Measuring 3–4 millimeters in length as adults, they are cryptic, superfi ...
'', fecal case
File:Neochlamisus larva.jpg, ''Neochlamisus'', larva removed from larval fecal case
References
External links
Key to the British genera of Cryptocephalinae*
Taxa named by Leonard Gyllenhaal
Beetle subfamilies
{{Cryptocephalinae-stub