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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #372436
Research Project: Beetle Taxonomy and Systematics Supporting U.S. Agriculture, Arboriculture and Biological Control

Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory

Title: Moss-inhabiting flea beetles of West Indies I: New species of Borinken Konstantinov and Konstantinova and Kiskeya Konstantinov and Chamorro-Lacayo (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae: Alticini) from Puerto Rico

Author
item Konstantinov, Alexander - Alex
item LINZMEIER, A. - Federal University Of Parana Polytechnic Center
item Scheffer, Sonja
item Lewis, Matthew

Submitted to: Insecta Mundi
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/6/2020
Publication Date: 5/29/2020
Citation: Konstantinov, A.S., Linzmeier, A.M., Scheffer, S.J., Lewis, M.L. 2020. Moss-inhabiting flea beetles of West Indies I: New species of Borinken Konstantinov and Konstantinova and Kiskeya Konstantinov and Chamorro-Lacayo (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae: Alticini) from Puerto Rico. Insecta Mundi. 0771:1-12.

Interpretive Summary: Leaf beetles, especially flea beetles, are among the most important insects for U.S. agriculture. Many are serious pests and feed on crops destroying valuable plants costing millions of dollars annually. Others are important biological control agents that can be used to control unwanted and invasive weeds. This work documents a discovery of three flea beetle species previously unknown to science in the Puerto Rico. The species are described, illustrated and compared to known species of the appropriate genera. The study will be useful to biological control workers, evolutionary biologists, ecologists, and anyone interested in plant feeding beetles.

Technical Abstract: Three new species of flea beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae: Alticini) from moss cushions of Puerto Rico are described: Borinken toronegro and Kiskeya segarrai from Toro Negro mountain region and Kiskeya micheliorum from Maricao mountains. New species are compared with already known species from the same genera morphologically. In addition to determine the similarities between moss inhabiting flea beetles, we sequenced mitochondrial cytochrome barcode region of adult specimens. In all cases, the distances between species are well outside the 2% species-limit cutoff typically used as an indicator of different species.