Altica Explained

Altica (Neo-Latin from Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἁλτικός, haltikós, "jumper" or "jumping") is a large genus of flea beetles in the subfamily Galerucinae, with about 300 species, distributed nearly worldwide.^{[1] [2]} The genus is best represented in the Neotropical realm, well represented in the Nearctic and Palearctic, but occurs also in the Afrotropic, Indomalaya, and Australasia. The species are similar to each other, small metallic blue-green-bronze beetles, often distinguished from each other only by the aedeagus. The species of Altica, both as larvae and as adults, are phytophagous, feeding on plant foliage of various food plant taxa, specific for each Altica species. Onagraceae and Rosaceae (mainly Rubus) are the dominant host plant families for Holarctic species. The adult Altica beetles are able to jump away when approached.

Further reading

• Král J. (1964–1979). Zur Kenntnis der palaearktischen Altica-Arten. Part 1–7. Entomologische Blätter 60: 126–133, 162–166; 62: 53–61, 159–168; 65: 72–85; 72: 61–63; 75: 98–108.
• LeSage, L. 1995. Revision of the costate species of Altica Müller from North America north of Mexico. Canadian Entomologist 127, 295–411.
• Plague and government response for the Altica quercetorum plague in Galicia.

Notes and References

1. Konstantinov A.S., Vandenberg N.J. 1996. Handbook of Palaearctic flea beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Alticinae). Contributions on Entomology, International, Vol. 1, Part 3. Gainesville, FL: Associated Publishers. P. 237–440.
2. Ross H. Arnett et al. American Beetles, Vol. 2: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2002. . P. 662–663.