''Tyrannomolpus'' is a genus of

leaf beetle 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 ...

s in the subfamily

Eumolpinae The Eumolpinae are a subfamily of the leaf beetles, or Chrysomelidae. It is one of the largest subfamilies of leaf beetles, including more than 500 genera and 7000 species. They are oval, and convex in form, and measure up to 10 mm in size. ...

. It is known only from

Three Kings Islands 3 (three) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cul ...

, New Zealand. It contains only one species, ''Tyrannomolpus rex''. ''T. rex'' is the largest chrysomelid beetle species endemic to New Zealand, measuring between 9.7 and 11.9 mm, and may be an example of

island gigantism Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. Island gigantism is one aspect of the more general "is ...

. It has a dark bronzy-green color with a metallic luster. ''Tyrannomolpus'' is closest to the genus '' Pilacolaspis'' from the mainland of New Zealand. The generic name is a combination of the dinosaur genus name ''

Tyrannosaurus ''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It lived througho ...

'' and the suffix "molpus", referring to the relative large size of the genus to other chrysomelids endemic to New Zealand. The specific name, ''rex'', is the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "king", referring to the only known location of the genus, Three Kings Islands. A single specimen of the species was collected from '' Meryta sinclairii'' (also known as the puka), a tree endemic to the Three Kings Islands.

References

Eumolpinae Monotypic Chrysomelidae genera Endemic beetles of New Zealand Beetles described in 2017 Fauna of Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands {{Eumolpinae-stub