''Lamprolina'' is an Australian

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

leaf beetles The beetle family Chrysomelidae, commonly known as leaf beetles, includes over 37,000 (and probably at least 50,000) species in more than 2,500 genera, making it one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle families. Numerous su ...

(Chrysomelidae) found in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Description

Adults of this genus are 6-14 mm long (15 mm has also been reported) with relatively narrow and flat bodies. The

elytra An elytron (; ; : elytra, ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometime ...

may be dark blue or dark green, while the head and

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on e ...

may be red, orange or yellow. The prosternum is either anteriorly produced at middle, or the pronotal hypomeron has a groove parallel to pronotal margin. The middle of each side of the pronotum usually has large irregular punctate depressions. An elytral posthumeral depression is usually present. As in other leaf beetle genera, the two sexes can be distinguished by the shape of the last abdominal

ventrite The sternum (: sterna) is the ventral portion of a segment of an arthropod thorax or abdomen. In insects, the sterna are usually single, large sclerites, and external. However, they can sometimes be divided in two or more, in which case the sub ...

: it has a rounded apex in females and a truncate apex in males. Larvae have a brown head with six black eyes spots on each side. The underside of the body is pale, while the upper side is dark and has spines. ''Lamprolina'' is part of a non-glanduliferous group of chrysomelines (also including '' Johannica'', '' Chalcolampra'' and '' Phyllocharis'') whose larvae are elongate with well-developed setose

sclerites A sclerite (Greek , ', meaning " hard") is a hardened body part. In various branches of biology the term is applied to various structures, but not as a rule to vertebrate anatomical features such as bones and teeth. Instead it refers most commonly ...

and no lateral glands.

Diet

''Lamprolina'' feed mostly on plants in the family

Pittosporaceae Pittosporaceae is a family of flowering plants that consists of 200–240 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas in 9 genera. Habitats range from tropical to temperate climates of the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, Oceanian, and Australasian r ...

: ''

Bursaria ''Bursaria'' is a genus of eight species of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to Australia. They are shrubs or slender trees, often with spiny branches and have Leaf#Divisions of the blade, simple leaves, relatively s ...

'', ''

Hymenosporum ''Hymenosporum'' is a monotypic genus of trees in the family Pittosporaceae. The sole included species is ''Hymenosporum flavum'', commonly known as native frangipani, found in the rainforests and wet sclerophyll forests of New Guinea, Queensla ...

'' and ''

Pittosporum ''Pittosporum'' ( or The first pronunciation is that expected for traditional English pronunciation of Latin, Anglo-Latin; the second is common in nurseries. ''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607) is a genus of about 250 species of flow ...

''. An undescribed species feeds on ''

Tasmannia ''Tasmannia'' is a genus of about 36 species of flowering plants in the family Winteraceae, and is native to Australia and New Guinea, with one species ('' Tasmannia piperita'') also found in parts of Southeast Asia. Plants in the genus ''Tasm ...

'' of family

Winteraceae Winteraceae is a primitive family of tropical trees and shrubs including 93 species in five genera. It is of particular interest because it is such a primitive angiosperm family, distantly related to Magnoliaceae, though it has a much more south ...

Life cycle

These beetles begin their lives as eggs laid on leaves or stems of host plants, which hatch into larvae within one week. Once larvae have finished feeding and growing, they migrate to the base of their host plants to pupate in soil for several months. They emerge as adults which can be seen on host plants, feeding and mating.

Taxonomy

The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

, ''Lamprolina aeneipennis,'' was originally assigned to genus ''Phyllocharis'' by

Jean Baptiste Boisduval Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de Boisduval (24 June 1799 – 30 December 1879) was a French lepidopterist, botanist, and physician. He was one of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France, and was the co-founder of the Société ento ...

. It was moved to the newly erected genus ''Lamprolina'' in 1855 by

Joseph Sugar Baly Joseph Sugar Baly (1816 – 27 March 1890) was an English medical doctor and entomologist. He described a number of species of beetle in the family Chrysomelidae. Baly was born in Warwick, first son of Joseph Baly. He studied at the local gramm ...

, who also described several new species. The species in this genus are: *'' Lamprolina aeneipennis'' *'' Lamprolina binotata'' *'' Lamprolina discoidalis'' *'' Lamprolina foveilatera'' *'' Lamprolina grandis'' *'' Lamprolina hackeri'' *'' Lamprolina impressicollis'' *'' Lamprolina jansoni'' *'' Lamprolina minor'' *'' Lamprolina perplexa'' *'' Lamprolina puncticollis'' *'' Lamprolina simillimus'' *'' Lamprolina simplicipennis''

References

External links

Brisbane leaf beetles: Lamprolina
{{Taxonbar, from=Q65232881 Chrysomelidae genera Chrysomelinae Taxa named by Joseph Sugar Baly