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Genus Trirhabda

Next to the door - Trirhabda Trirhabda specimens - Trirhabda Beetle - Trirhabda diducta small black sawfly larvae - Trirhabda Trirhabda nitidicolis or lewisii? - Trirhabda Trirhabda eriodictyonis from Santa Lucia Mountains - Trirhabda eriodictyonis - female Beetle on rabbitbrush - Trirhabda Beetle  - Trirhabda
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Chrysomeloidea (Longhorn and Leaf Beetles)
Family Chrysomelidae (Leaf Beetles)
Subfamily Galerucinae (Skeletonizing Leaf Beetles and Flea Beetles)
Tribe Galerucini
No Taxon (Section Coelomerites)
Genus Trirhabda
Explanation of Names
Trirhabda LeConte 1865
'three rods'
Numbers
26 spp. in our area(1), ~30 total(2)
Size
5‒12 mm
Identification
antennomere 3 shorter than ant.4
Pronotum yellow with 3 dark spots
Head yellow with dark occipital spot
Host info often critical for species identification.
Shawn Clark's remark about image identification: "Without actual specimens to examine, I prefer not to guess at the Trirhabda species."
Keys in (3)(4)(5) • see also (1)
Range
NA (so. Canada to C.America); introduced elsewhere (e.g., Australia)
Habitat
Weedy fields, brushy areas
Season
Adults May‒Aug; larvae Apr‒Jun
Food
Hosts: Asteraceae and Hydrophyllaceae. Larvae and adults usually feed on leaves and flowers of a single host species or genus: one group of species feeds on goldenrod (Solidago); another, on wormwood (Artemisia); another on Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon); etc.
Life Cycle
One generation per year; overwinter as eggs; pupate in the soil.
Print References
Gould K., Wilson P. (2015) Lack of evolution in a leaf beetle that lives on two contrasting host plants. Ecol. Evol. 5: 3905‒3913 (Full text)
Works Cited
1.Phylogeny and host plant association in the leaf beetle genus Trirhabda LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)
Swigoňová Z., Kjer K.M. 2004. Mol. Phylog. Evol. 32: 358‒374.
2.American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea
Arnett, R.H., Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
3.A Synopsis of the North American Galerucinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)
John A. Wilcox. 1965. New York State Museum and Science Service.
4.Biosystematics of the genus Trirhabda LeConte of America north of Mexico (Chrysomelidae: Coleoptera)
Steve Munroe Hogue. 1970. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Idaho, 212 pp.
5.Revision of the species of beetles of the genus Trirhabda north of Mexico
Blake D.H. 1932. Proc. USNM 79: 1‒36.