subgenus Donacia

Classification · Other Common Names · Numbers · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Works Cited

aquatic leaf beetle - Donacia cincticornis - male

Aquatic Leaf Beetle - subgenus Donacia - Donacia hypoleuca

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 Donaciinae (Aquatic Leaf Beetles)

Genus Donacia

No Taxon subgenus Donacia

Other Common Names

Pond lily leaf beetles (the host of all species of the subgenus)

Numbers

10 spp. in our area(1), ~14 total(2)

Identification

Recognized by combination of: color generally not metallic though the cuticle can have a metallic sheen especially in sunlight, rather like tortoise beetles; pronotum lacking coarse punctures that can form transverse rugae, the surface can be shiny, to distinctly shagreened, median sulcus distinct to obliterated; elytra shiny and impunctate and lack prominent rugosity; metafemora typically distinctly clavate and with 1 or 2 ventrosoical teeth or spines, but range from hardly clavate and lacking teeth to extremely robust and bidentate. (Ingolf Askevold, 2024)

Range

primarily holarctic, with some representation more to the south; in our area, eastern, with 1 sp. ranging to the west coast (BC‒CA)(1)

Habitat

on pond lilies, Nuphar or Nymphaea spp. (Nymphaeaceae)

Food

hosts: Nuphar, Nymphaea(1) (Brasenia is cited as a host but is really just a temporary landing spot. Nymphoides also.)

Works Cited

1.	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.

2.	BioLib.cz

Contributed by v belov on 26 January, 2015 - 2:43pm
Additional contributions by Mike Quinn, Ingolf
Last updated 8 August, 2024 - 1:11pm

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