Species Lampetis cupreopunctata

Lampetis cupreopunctata (Schaeffer)

Orig. Comb: Psiloptera cupreopunctata Schaeffer 1905

cupreopunctata - copper spotted (1)

3 spp. n. of Mex. (2)

16.5-22 mm (Schaeffer 1905)

southmost TX (Cameron & Hidalgo Counties) / Mex. - Map (3)(4)

Sept-Jan (Vogt, 1949)(BG data)

Adults on Acacia, Prosopis (2)

"During October and November very common on mesquite, huisache and occasionally on coma, especially where brush is being cleared. On mesquite this species has the habit of chewing the bark at the bases of leaf petioles in such a manner as to cut off the leaves. Heavily attached trees maybe almost completely defoliated." (Vogt, 1949)

TYPE: "Esperanza Ranch, Brownsville, Texas, August, 1904, one by sweeping the low herbage, the other found on an old mesquite trunk, both specimens are of one sex and probably males." (Schaeffer 1905)

Note that while Schaeffer (1905) only found two, Vogt (1949) found them to be "very common ... especially where brush is being cleared." Post WWII through the 1950s was the death knell for most of the last of the brush along the Rio Grande...

Corona, A. Ma. 2005. Revision of the subgenus Lampetis (Spinthoptera) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) of North and Central American, and the West Indies. European Journal of Entomology 102: 737-776.

Nelson, G.H. 1986. A review of the genus Psiloptera subgenus Lampetis Solier in the United States (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). The Coleopterists Bulletin 40(3): 272-284.

Schaeffer, C. 1905. Additions to the Coleoptera of the United States with notes on some known species. Science Bulletin of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1(6): 123-140. (Full Text)

Vogt, G.B. 1949. A biologically annotated list of the Buprestidae of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 42: 191-202.

Type Info - Smithsonian