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Genus Lebia - Colorful Foliage Ground Beetles

Representative Images

Colorful Foliage Ground Beetle - Lebia fuscata Colorful Foliage Ground Beetle - Lebia solea Lebia - Lebia grandis Colorful Foliage Ground Beetle - Lebia viridis Lebia atriventris Lebia atriventris Lebia viridis on Solidago gigantea - Lebia viridis Ground Beetle - Lebia guttula

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Adephaga
Family Carabidae (Ground Beetles)
Subfamily Harpalinae
Supertribe Harpalitae
Tribe Lebiini
Subtribe Lebiina
Genus Lebia (Colorful Foliage Ground Beetles)

Other Common Names

Flat Ground Beetles

Explanation of Names

Lebia Latreille 1802
'shallow, thin'

Numbers

~50 spp. in 5 subgenera in our area, ~800 spp. in 18 subgenera worldwide(1)(2)(BG data) • our fauna:
subg. Chelonodema: 1 sp.
subg. Loxopeza: 8 spp.
subg. Polycheloma: 1 sp.
subg. Lamprias: 1 sp.
subg. Lebia: 38 spp. (of which 4 not yet in the guide)

Size

2.5‒14 mm(3)

Identification

Medium-sized/small, often vividly colored carabids with wide, flattened elytra
Revision of NA fauna in (3)
Adults of 14 spp. shown in (4)

Range

worldwide and throughout NA (north to YT & n.QC)(5)

Habitat

Found on foliage and on ground

Season

Typically late spring to mid-summer + fall; adults overwinter; two generations per year in south

Food

Predatory on small insects; some parasitize leaf beetle larvae

Life Cycle

In summer, adults often active on foliage during the day

Works Cited

1.Catalogue of Geadephaga (Coleoptera, Adephaga) of America, north of Mexico
Bousquet Y. 2012. ZooKeys 245: 1–1722.
2.Catalogue of Life
3.A revision of the genus Lebia Latreille in America North of México (Coleoptera, Carabidae)
Madge R.B. 1967. Quaest. Entomol. 3: 139‒242.
4.The Ground Beetles of Canada
5.American Beetles, Volume I: Archostemata, Myxophaga, Adephaga, Polyphaga: Staphyliniformia
Arnett, R.H., Jr., and M. C. Thomas. (eds.). 2000. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
Contributed by Robin McLeod on 8 March, 2005 - 2:45am
Additional contributions by cotinis, v belov
Last updated 5 March, 2024 - 7:16pm

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