Species Phyllophaga rubiginosa

Phyllophaga rubiginosa (LeConte)

Orig. Comb: Lachnosterna rubiginosa LeConte 1856

rubigin (L). 'rusty' (1)

Throughout most of TX, north to KS - Map (McColloch & Hayes 1919)(2)(3)

Period of flight: April 18 to August 8 in Kansas (McColloch & Hayes 1919)

Principal food plants (in KS): Hawthorne, horse chestnut, locust, hackberry, oak, elm, coffee tree. (McColloch & Hayes 1919)

Incidental food plants (in KS): Linden, birch, Norway maple, redbud, tulip, box elder, ash, apricot, cherry, peach, persimmon, strawberry, silver poplar, larch.

Numbers coll. in Kansas: At lights, 1,798; on food plants, 4,236; in soil, 47; total, 6,081. (McColloch & Hayes 1919)

Phy. rubiginosa ranks second among the night-flying Lachnosterna of Riley county, [Kansas] comprising 15 per cent of the total collections. (Knaus (1897), in reporting this species from Douglas county and Manhattan, speaks of it as being rare.) The collections show that rubiginosa is more abundant on food plants than at lights. The males greatly predominate in the collections made at lights, while there is a slight preponderance of females in those from trees. (McColloch & Hayes 1919)

Knaus, W. 1897. The Lachnosterna of Kansas. Ent. News, 8: 214-217.

LeConte, J.L. 1856. Synopsis of the Melolonthidae. Journal of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia (2)3: 225-228.

McColloch, J.W. and W.P. Hayes. 1919. The Lachnosterna of the Vicinity of Manhattan, Kan. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, 30: 184-195. (Full Text)