Stephanispa Gressitt, 1960

Borowiec, Lech, Świętojańska, Jolanta & Sekerka, Lukáš, 2019, Revision of the tribe Cryptonychini (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae) of New Caledonia, Zootaxa 4690 (1), pp. 1-71 : 41

Genus Stephanispa Gressitt, 1960

Stephanispa Gressitt 1960b: 111 (original description), 1961: 79 (noted); Uhmann 1964: 455 (catalogue); Würmli 1975 a: 35 (diagnostic description); Seeno & Wilcox 1982: 163 (catalogue); Jolivet 1989: 310 (host plants); Jolivet & Hawkeswood 1995: 153 (host plants); Jolivet & Verma 2009: 218 (faunal list).

Type species. Stephanispa freycineticola Gressitt 1960 by original designation.

Description. Small to moderately large beetles, body length below 8.6 mm. Antennae 11-segmented. Body slim and elongate, more than 3 × but less than 4 × as long as wide. Head broad, 1.3–1.7 × as wide as long, interocular plate transverse with sides more or less converging anterad, flat, not separated from vertex by any impression or sulcus. Interantennal process very short, not longer than ¼ length of antennomere I. Frontoclypeus as long as or only slightly longer than wide, punctate but never with median keel. Prosternum without prosternal collar, prosternal process smooth and shiny. Pronotum rectangular in outline, with sharp lateral carina, without lateral tubercles or anterolateral projections, disc gently and regularly convex, without impressions or pits. Punctation of pronotal disc usually moderately coarse and dense to coarse and very dense. Elytra with short scutellar row of punctures, eigth rows in humeral part, 10–11 rows behind middle, and 10–11 rows apically. Each elytron with at least two distinct costae. Thorax and abdomen dull to slightly shiny, more or less punctate. Legs stout, mid tibiae sexually dimorphic. Sexual dimorphism manifested in structure of mid tibiae and shape of apex of ventrite V.

Distribution. Two species endemic to New Caledonia.