Euphorbia flea beetle - Aphthona

Moved

Moved from Aphthona.

… v belov, 18 July, 2015 - 5:16am

No keys but lots of info around

Most info from biological websites that sold these bugs for pest control. For instance this site quoting how to distinguish from nigriscutis: http://www.biocontrol.entomology.cornell.edu/weedfeed/AphthonaCyparissiae.php

Yes I bet you do have to do dissection when there are 30 or more spp, we seem lucky in only having 6, 3 of them completely different in colouration to the 3 orange spp.

As you know I don't tend to move stuff unless I'm quite sure, but I will leave it to you as for the decision.

… James Bailey, 18 July, 2015 - 5:27pm

thanks for explaining

i wouldn't trust any commercial websites; all too often they are totally unreliable in matters of taxonomy, and tend to provide rather frivolous features for 'field identification'
i think there are good online photos of the aedeagi of all the spp. imported to America

… v belov, 18 July, 2015 - 5:57pm

Moved

Moved from Aphthona cyparissiae.

… v belov, 18 July, 2015 - 5:16am

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… James Bailey, 17 July, 2015 - 9:20pm

how was the id obtained?

please elaborate
thanks

… v belov, 17 July, 2015 - 10:20pm

Details:

Genus ID on smooth elytra, size and host plant (no native flea beetles use introduced Euphorbia).

6 species in the genus, only 3 are orange (abdominalis, cyparissae, nigriscutis). Lack of black around scutellum rules out nigriscutis. Vibrant colour and lack of contrast between colour of pronotum and elytra rules out abdominalis.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

… James Bailey, 17 July, 2015 - 10:42pm

confused

which key uses color as diagnostic feature within this genus?
what little i know about Aphthona is that nothing short of dissection can provide positive identification of species, and that color doesn't work at all

(in general, any IDs based on color are at best shaky)

… v belov, 18 July, 2015 - 5:15am