Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Tribe Alticini - Flea Beetles

Capraita circumdata Flea Beetles - Systena gracilenta Chrysomelid? - Psylliodes Potato Beetle - Disonycha leptolineata Tiny Green Beetle - Altica Chrysomelidae 13 - Chaetocnema Altica betulae Schaeffer - Altica betulae Tiny flea beetle - Dibolia
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 Galerucinae (Skeletonizing Leaf Beetles and Flea Beetles)
Tribe Alticini (Flea Beetles)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
recentl treatment in (1)
arrangement of genera into groups follows(2) (groups represented in our area by a single genus are not used); for some genus groups there are available family group names in(3) but transitioning to these will have to wait until a more comprehensive treatment has been published
Explanation of Names
Alticini Newman 1835
most members of this tribe are good jumpers, thus the common name
Numbers
the largest tribe of the family, with 470 described spp. in ~50 genera in our area* and ~10,000 spp. in >600 genera worldwide(1)
________
*not yet in the guide: Acrocyum (1 sp., TX)(4)
Identification
Enlarged hind femora are distinctive, though not all alticines have them
The online key to palearctic genera(5) is helpful with our fauna
Photo gallery of 46 ND spp. in (6)
Range
worldwide and throughout NA
Remarks
Most males have protarsomere I enlarged
Works Cited
1.Phylogeny of the flea beetles (Galerucinae: Alticini) and the position of Aulacothorax elucidated through anchored phylogenomics
Douglas HB, Konstantinov AS, Brunke AJ, Moseyko AG, Chapados JT, Eyres J, Richter R, Savard K, Sears E, Prathapan KD, Ruan Y... 2023. Sys. Entomol. 48: 361‒386.
2.Catalog of Leaf Beetles of America North of Mexico
Ed Riley, Shawn Clark, and Terry Seeno. 2003. Coleopterists Society.
3.Family-group names in Coleoptera (Insecta)
Bouchard P, Bousquet Y, Davies A, Alonso-Zarazaga M, Lawrence JF, Lyal CH, Newton A, Reid CA, Schmitt M, Ślipiński SA, Smith A. 2011. ZooKeys 88: 1–972.
4.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.
5.[Online] Guide to Palearctic flea beetle genera, by Alexander S. Konstantinov and Natalia J. Vanderberg
6.Fauske G.M. (2003-2006) Common flea beetles of North Dakota