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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Water, Rove, Scarab, Long-horned, Leaf and Snout Beetles (Polyphaga) » Series Cucujiformia » Fungus, Bark, Darkling and Blister Beetles (Tenebrionoidea) » Blister Beetles (Meloidae) » Meloinae » Lytta

Genus Lytta

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Remarks · See Also · Works Cited

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

Lytta Fabricius 1775

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)

Size

7-27 mm

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)

Habitat

Larvae in bee nests(5)

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)

See Also

Epicauta

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.

3.	The New World genera of Meloidae (Coleoptera): a key and synopsis Pinto J.D., Bologna M.A. 1999. J. Nat. Hist. 33: 569-620.

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.

Contributed by Joel Kits on 24 March, 2005 - 12:12pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, Stephen_WV, Mike Quinn, v belov
Last updated 13 October, 2015 - 10:30am

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