The Megalopodidae are a small family of leaf beetles, previously included as a subfamily within the

Chrysomelidae 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 s ...

. One of its constituent subfamilies, Zeugophorinae, has also frequently been treated as a subfamily within Chrysomelidae. The family contains approximately 30 genera worldwide, primarily in the nominate subfamily Megalopodinae, and mostly

circumtropical A pantropical ("all tropics") distribution is one which covers tropical regions of both the Eastern and Western hemispheres. Examples of species include caecilians, modern sirenians and the plant genera ''Acacia'' and ''Bacopa''. ''Neotropical'' ...

. The larvae of some species are

leaf miner A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths (Lepidoptera), sawflies (Symphyta, a paraphyletic group which ...

s on various host plants. Other larvae feed on stem-tissue or pollen grains of conifer

strobili A strobilus (: strobili) is a structure present on many land plant species consisting of sporangia-bearing structures densely aggregated along a stem. Strobili are often called cones, but some botanists restrict the use of the term cone to the woo ...

. Once fully grown, the larva drops to the ground and pupates.Lawrence, John F. and Ślipiński, Adam. "Megalopodidae Latreille, 1802: Arthropoda: Insecta (Vol. 4)". ''Handbook of Zoology Online'', edited by Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 2014.

References

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External links

Australian Faunal Directory

Polyphaga families {{Megalopodidae-stub