Genus Cassida

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Range · Habitat · Season · Food · Life Cycle · Works Cited

adult Thistle Tortoise Beetle - Cassida rubiginosa

Cassida rubiginosa? - Cassida rubiginosa

Cassida Rubiginosa - Cassida rubiginosa - male - female

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 Cassidinae (Tortoise Beetles and the Hispines)

Tribe Cassidini (Tortoise Beetles)

Genus Cassida

Explanation of Names

Cassida Linnaeus 1758

Numbers

6 spp. in our area, of which only C. relicta is indigenous to NA; >480 spp. total, arranged in a dozen subgenera (of questionable validity)(1)(2)

Range

Old World group, except for the presumably holarctic C. flaveola (northern transcontinental in NA) and C. relicta, restricted to Midwestern & s.-c. US; other adventive spp. of Palaearctic origin are now established across much of Canada and n. US (C. rubiginosa also intentionally introduced to VA); the European C. azurea has been introduced for weed control(1)(2)(3)(4)

Habitat

fields, meadows, parks, lawns & gardens, waste places

Season

larvae and adults from spring through fall

Food

very wide variety of plants; spp. adventive in NA feed on Amaranthaceae, Asteraceae (thistles, knapweeds), Caryophyllaceae, Chenopodiaceae(1)

Life Cycle

one generation per year; overwinter as adult in leaf litter

See

Works Cited

1.	Cassidinae of the world - an interactive manual (by Lech Borowiec and Jolanta Świętojańska)

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.	Annotated list of the leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) of Kentucky: Subfamily Cassidinae Barney R.J., Clark S.M., Riley E.G. 2007. J. Kentucky Acad. Sci. 68: 132-144.

4.	Introduced leaf beetles of the Maritime Provinces 7: Cassida rubiginosa Müller and Cassida flaveola Thunberg... C.G. Majka & L. Lesage. 2008. Zootaxa 1811: 37–56.

Contributed by Robin McLeod on 24 March, 2005 - 5:18pm
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, v belov
Last updated 28 March, 2024 - 12:05am

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