Guide to Palearctic Flea Beetle Genera
(Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Alticinae)
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Hermaeophaga Foudras

Hermaeophaga ruficollis
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  • Hermaeophaga Foudras, 1859 (1860):147 (type species Galeruca mercurialis F., 1792, Europe, by monotypy). - Heikertinger & Csiki in Junk, 1939:253. - Kaszab, 1962:355. - Gressitt & Kimoto, 1963:747. - Kimoto, 1966:622. - Shapiro, 1965:454. - Mohr, 1966:236. - Gruev & Tomov, 1986:94. - Konstantinov & Vandenberg, 1996:340.
  • Orthocrepis Weise, 1882-1893 (1888):850 (proposed as subgenus, type species Haltica ruficollis Lucas, 1849, S.Europe, by monotypy). - Lopatin, 1977:224; 1984:342. - Scherer, 1969:109 (as genus).

Distribution: Europe, Caucasus, southern Siberia, Asia Minor, Central Asia, Japan, China, India, Africa.

Statistics: 5 species in Palearctic, about 20 species worldwide.

Host Plants: Mercurialis annua, M. perennis, Capparis spinosa, Ricinus (Medvedev & Roginskaya 1988).

Comments: New world species previously placed in this genus (Heikertinger & Csiki 1939) definitely belong to other genera (Seeno & Wilcox, 1982), probably to Syphrea Baly.

Diagnosis: Body small to medium sized, broadly oval (Hermaeophaga s. str.) or elongate (subgenus Orthocrepis Weise). Color dark metallic blue or green (Hermaeophaga s.str.), yellow to brown (Orthocrepis).
 Head hypognathous, oval. Frontal ridge wide, forming angular T-shaped ridge with anterior margin of head capsule. Antennal calli slightly raised, weakly delimited from vertex, frontal ridge and from each other; lines delineating calli and vertex sometimes indistinct. Orbital line present, closely situated to eye. Eye small. Distance between antennal sockets wider than diameter of antennal socket and transverse diameter of eye. Clypeus long. Antenna 11-segmented, filiform.
Pronotum wide, convex, with transverse and longitudinal furrows basally. Procoxal cavity open behind. Intercoxal prosternal process narrow.
Elytra oval, convex, with well developed humeral calli, irregularly punctate. Epipleuron wide subhorizontal, almost reaching elytral apex.
Metafemur typical. Metatibia cylindrical, slightly thickened and flat apically. Metatarsus inserted apically. First metatarsal segment shorter than following two segments combined. Fourth protarsal segment longer than first one.

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Generic
Key 		Generic
Index 		Morphology Host
Plants 		Overview of
Palearctic Fauna 		Literature
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