''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
pest
Pest or The Pest may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Pest (organism), an animal or plant deemed to be detrimental to humans or human concerns
** Weed, a plant considered undesirable
* Infectious disease, an illness resulting from an infection
** ...
s, such as the grape colaspis (''
Colaspis brunnea
''Colaspis brunnea'', the grape colaspis, is a species of leaf beetle from North America. It mainly occurs in the eastern United States. It is a pest of crop such as corn
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after t ...
''). 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
''Metaxyonycha'' is a genus of leaf beetles in the subfamily Eumolpinae.
Taxonomy
''Metaxyonycha'' was first named by Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat in 1836, with the spelling "''Metazyonycha''", in Dejean's ''Catalogue of Coleoptera''. A ...
'', which shared the same type species, was synonymised with ''Colaspis''. The species of ''Colaspis'' in the Junk-Schenkling catalog 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, suc