Chrysomeloidea

Chrysomeloidea
Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Suborder:	Polyphaga
Superfamily:	Chrysomeloidea Latreille, 1802
Families
Cerambycidae - long-horned beetles Chrysomelidae - leaf beetles Disteniidae Megalopodidae Orsodacnidae Oxypeltidae Vesperidae

The Chrysomeloidea are an enormous superfamily of beetles, with tens of thousands of species, mostly in the families Cerambycidae (the long-horned beetles) and Chrysomelidae, the leaf beetles.

Overview

Several species in these two families are important plant pests. The spotted cucumber beetle is a serious pest of vegetables and is a very common insect on all sorts of flowers. The Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, attacks potatoes and other members of the Solanaceae. The Asian long-horned beetle is a serious pest of trees where it has been introduced.

Some authorities have suggested removing the Cerambycidae and related families (Disteniidae, Oxypeltidae, and Vesperidae) from Chrysomeloidea to create a separate superfamily "Cerambycoidea" (e.g., ^[1]), but in the absence of evidence to support the monophyly of the resulting groups, this proposal has not yet been accepted by the scientific community.

References

1. P. Švácha and M.L. Danilevsky (1990) Cerambycoid larvae of Europe and Soviet Union (Coleoptera Cerambycoidea). Part I. Entomologia Generalis, 15(3): 202.

External links

Data related to Chrysomeloidea at Wikispecies Media related to Chrysomeloidea at Wikimedia Commons