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Genus Lytta
Classification Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga (Water, Rove, Scarab, Long-horned, Leaf and Snout Beetles)
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Tenebrionoidea (Fungus, Bark, Darkling and Blister Beetles)
Family Meloidae (Blister Beetles)
Subfamily Meloinae
Genus Lytta
Explanation of Names From Greek lytta, lyssa (λυττα, λυσσα) 'madness, rage' (refers to the toxic properties of these beetles)
Numbers 47 spp. in 4 subgenera in our area (1), ~70 in the Nearctic Region (2), ~110 total (arranged into 9 subgenera) (3); 3 spp. in the northeast ( L. aenea, L. sayi, L. unguicularis) (4)
Identification unlike in Epicauta, no hairy patch on underside of profemora (5) and antennae submoniliform(6):
vs more thread-like in Epicauta:
key to spp. of our fauna in Selander (1960) (1)
Range Holarctic (3); in our area, most diverse in w. US (2)
Food larval hosts: bees, esp. Anthophoridae, Megachilidae, Halictidae, Colletidae (3)
adults eat foliage, flowers, pollen, and fruit
Remarks our only representative of the tribe Lyttini Solier 1851, that contains 7 genera in the New World alone (3)
Works Cited 1. | Bionomics, systematics and phylogeny of Lytta, a genus of blister beetles (Coleoptera: Meloidae). Selander, R.B. 1960. Illinois Biological Monographs, No. 28, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL. | |
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. |  |
4. | The Beetles of Northeastern North America, Vol. 1 and 2. Downie, N.M., and R.H. Arnett. 1996. The Sandhill Crane Press, Gainesville, FL. | |
5. | Peterson Field Guides: Beetles Richard E. White. 1983. Houghton Mifflin Company. | |
6. | A Manual of Common Beetles of Eastern North America Dillon, Elizabeth S., and Dillon, Lawrence. 1961. Row, Peterson, and Company. | |
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