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

Species Pachybrachis femoratus

Casebearer Beetle - Pachybrachis femoratus Casebearer - Pachybrachis femoratus Casebearer - Pachybrachis femoratus
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 Cryptocephalinae (Case-bearing Leaf Beetles)
Tribe Cryptocephalini
Subtribe Pachybrachina
Genus Pachybrachis (Scriptured Leaf Beetles)
Species femoratus (Pachybrachis femoratus)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Pachybrachis femoratus (Olivier)
Orig. Comb: Cryptocephalus femoratus Olivier,1808
Size
Ave length 2.75 mm (1)
Identification
Small to medium in size, females quite robust, blackish and dull yellow, mottled, the darker color usually in excess on the prothorax, and often on the elytra; punctuation rather dense, broadly confused on the elytral disk; no ocular lines; front claws of male distinctly enlarged. (1)
Dull yellow, varying to dull gray or whitish yellow, thickly mottled with black or brown punctures. Head yellow with occiput, median frontal vitta, and areas between antennal bases and upper lobes of eyes black and usually connected. Front strongly, closely punctate. Pronotum marked with black areas in which punctation is closer. Elytra confusedly punctate basomedially, short series of punctures elsewhere. Three indistinct black lateral spots, and a single, ill-defined, somewhat oblique, black subapical spot. Pygidium black basally, yellow apically, black edge projecting medially into yellow from basal area; also single lateral black areas which are either separate spots or continuous with basal area. Venter mostly black, abdominal sternites sometimes yellow laterally, especially the 5th. Legs yellow, femora and tibiae with black or brown median spots. (2)
Range
TX-FL-NY-IN - Map (3)(4), one of the most commonly coll'ed sp. in Alabama (2)
Season
Mar-Jul (in AL) (2)
Food
reported from Quercus, Trifolium, Carya, and Pinus (5)
Works Cited
1.A revision of the North American species of Pachybrachys
H. C. Fall. 1915. Transactions of the American Entomological Society, Vol. 41, No. 3: 291–486 .
2.The leaf beetles of Alabama
Edward Balsbaugh and Kirby Hays. 1972. Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn University.
3.Catalog of Leaf Beetles of America North of Mexico
Ed Riley, Shawn Clark, and Terry Seeno. 2003. Coleopterists Society.
4.Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
5.Host plants of leaf beetle species occurring in the United States and Canada
Clark et al. 2004. Coleopterists Society, Special Publication no. 2, 476 pp.