Flea beetle

Flea beetles
Phyllotreta vittula with characteristic feeding damage to Brassicaceae leaf
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Chrysomelidae
Subfamily: Galerucinae
Tribe: Alticini
Newman, 1834[1]
Genera

Many, see text

Altica species larva
Disonycha xanthomelas
Luperaltica nigripalpis

The flea beetle is a small, jumping beetle of the leaf beetle family (Chrysomelidae), that makes up the tribe Alticini which is part of the subfamily Galerucinae. Historically the flea beetles were classified as their own subfamily.

Traditionally, the Alticini were separated from other Galerucinae by the presence of jumping hind legs, characterised by enlarged femora containing a spring structure allowing the flea beetles to jump. Recent phylogenetic studies suggest that jumping hind legs evolved multiple times in the Galerucinae, rather than once, and that several genera should be transferred between Alticini and Galerucinae sensu stricto (or Galerucini in some classifications).[2][3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bouchard2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Nie, R.-E.; Breeschoten, T.; Timmermans, M.J.T.N.; Nadein, K.S.; Xue, H.-J.; Bai, M.; Huang, Y.; Yang, X.-K.; Vogler, A.P. (2017). "The phylogeny of Galerucinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and the performance of mitochondrial genomes in phylogenetic inference compared to nuclear rRNA genes". Cladistics. 34 (2): 113–130. doi:10.1111/cla.12196. hdl:10044/1/58308. PMID 34645082.
  3. ^ Douglas, H.B.; Konstantinov, A.S.; Brunke, A.J.; Moseyko, A.G.; Chapados, J.T.; Eyres, J.; Richter, R.; Savard, K.; Sears, E.; Prathapan, K.D.; Ruan, Y.; Dettman, J.R. (2023). "Phylogeny of the flea beetles (Galerucinae: Alticini) and the position of Aulacothorax elucidated through anchored phylogenomics (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Alticini)". Systematic Entomology. 48 (3): 361–386. Bibcode:2023SysEn..48..361D. doi:10.1111/syen.12582.