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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Water, Rove, Scarab, Longhorn, Leaf and Snout Beetles (Polyphaga) » Scarab, Stag and Bess Beetles (Scarabaeoidea) » Scarab Beetles (Scarabaeidae) » Shining Leaf Chafers (Rutelinae)

Subfamily Rutelinae - Shining Leaf Chafers

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Identification · Food · See Also · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited

Metalic Yellow ? Beetle - Cotalpa lanigera

Andrew's Dune Scarab - Pseudocotalpa andrewsi

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Polyphaga (Water, Rove, Scarab, Longhorn, Leaf and Snout Beetles)

Superfamily Scarabaeoidea (Scarab, Stag and Bess Beetles)

Family Scarabaeidae (Scarab Beetles)

Subfamily Rutelinae (Shining Leaf Chafers)

Explanation of Names

Author is MacLeay 1819, who originally described as its own family, Rutelidae, now regarded as a subfamily of the Scarabaeidae. Name from genus Rutela (Latreille, 1817), an error for Latin rutila (masculine rutilus), meaning red (1).

Numbers

Worldwide, over 4,100 species.

Identification

Elongated to oval, often shiny, scarabs. Distinctive for having unequal, independently moveable tarsal claws, esp. on hind legs (2). Other typical (but not necessarily diagnostic) characters include:

middle tibiae with two apical spurs

pygidium exposed, not completely covered by elytra

scutellum is exposed, not covered by elytra

antennae with 9-10 segments, last three forming a club

Photos illustrating these characteristics:

Food

Adults feed on foliage and fruit. Larvae feed on roots and decaying vegetation (2).

See Also

Cetoniinae - Fruit and Flower Chafers

Melolonthinae - May Beetles and June Bugs

Print References

The Century Dictionary--entry for Rutela (1)

White, pp. 144-147 (2)

Harpootlian, p. 97 (3)

Dillon, p. 506 (4)

Ratcliffe & Paulsen (5)

Internet References

USDA Leaf Chafer Home Page

Generic Guide to New World Scarabs

Works Cited

1.	The Century Dictionary: an encyclopedic lexicon of the English language

2.	Peterson Field Guides: Beetles By Richard E. White

3.	Scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) of South Carolina By Phillip J. Harpootlian

4.	A Manual of Common Beetles of Eastern North America By Dillon, Elizabeth S., and Dillon, Lawrence

5.	The Scarabaeoid Beetles of Nebraska By Brett C. Ratcliffe & M.J. Paulsen

Contributed by Phillip Harpootlian on 7 March, 2005 - 3:55pm
Additional contributions by Mike Boone, cotinis
Last updated 12 August, 2008 - 12:58pm

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