Tricholapita Explained

Tricholapita is a genus of leaf beetles in the subfamily Eumolpinae.^[1] The genus is endemic to New Caledonia.

Taxonomy

The genus was first proposed by the entomologists Jésus Gómez-Zurita and Anabela Cardoso as a subgenus of Taophila, after a morphological and molecular study of the latter in 2014. The subgenus was given the name Lapita, and included three species. A 2019 phylogenetic study of the subgenus added a further eight species to it.^[2] The subgenus Lapita was discovered to be a junior homonym of the fly genus Lapita Bickel, 2002, so it was renamed to Tricholapita in 2020. Given the many morphological differences to Taophila s. str., the group was also elevated in rank to genus. Additionally, phylogenetic evidence suggested another species, which was proposed in the same work.

Species

There are 12 species currently included in the genus:^[2]

• Tricholapita aphrodita (Gómez-Zurita, 2014)
• Tricholapita atlantis (Platania & Gómez-Zurita, 2019)
• Tricholapita gaea (Gómez-Zurita, 2014)
• Tricholapita hermes (Platania & Gómez-Zurita, 2019)
• Tricholapita kronos (Platania & Gómez-Zurita, 2019)
• Tricholapita mars (Samuelson, 2010)^[3]
• Tricholapita oceanica (Platania & Gómez-Zurita, 2019)
• Tricholapita olympica (Platania & Gómez-Zurita, 2019)
• Tricholapita ouranos (Platania & Gómez-Zurita, 2019)
• Tricholapita reidi Gómez-Zurita, Platania & Cardoso, 2020
• Tricholapita riberai (Platania & Gómez-Zurita, 2019)
• Tricholapita tridentata (Platania & Gómez-Zurita, 2019)

Notes and References

1. Platania. L.. Gómez-Zurita. J.. 2023. Current knowledge on the diversity of Eumolpinae (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) in New Caledonia. ZooKeys. 1177. 41–55. 10.3897/zookeys.1177.101293. free. 37692319 . 10483691 . 10261/337235. free.
2. Platania. L.. Cardoso. A.. Gómez-Zurita. J.. 2020. Published online 8 November 2019. Diversity and evolution of New Caledonian endemic Taophila subgenus Lapita (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Eumolpinae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 189. 4. 1123–1154. 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz119.
3. G. A.. Samuelson. 2010. Review of Taophila, a genus endemic to New Caledonia (Coleoptera : Chrysomelidae : Eumolpinae). Zootaxa. 2621. 45–62. 10.11646/zootaxa.2621.1.3. free.