Blepharida Chevrolat, 1836

Biondi, Maurizio & D'Alessandro, Paola, 2012, Afrotropical flea beetle genera: a key to their identification, updated catalogue and biogeographical analysis (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae, Alticini), ZooKeys 253, pp. 1-158 : 25

Blepharida Chevrolat, 1836 Figs 23146-149297

= Blepharidella Weise, 1910a (synonymized by Scherer 1961)

= Blepharidula Weise, 1916 (an unnecessary new name for Eutheca Baly 1878)

= Calotheca Heyden, 1887(new name for Eutheca Baly, 1878; synonymized by Scherer 1961)

= Eutheca Baly, 1878c (name preoccupied by Eutheca Kiesenwetter in Erichson 1877: 155, Coleoptera : Anobiidae )

subgen. Blepharidina Bechyné, 1968

References.

Chevrolat 1836: 394; Baly 1878c: 204; Heyden 1887: 98; Duvivier 1891: 242; Weise 1910a: 220; 1916: 39; Laboissière 1942: 95; Bryant 1944a: 129; Scherer 1961: 252; Bechyné 1968: 1725; Furth 1998: 12; Furth and Lee 2000: 26; Becerra 2004: 116; Biondi and D’Alessandro 2010a: 404.

Type species.

Blepharida : Chrysomela rhois Forster, 1771: 21 (North America), by subsequent designation by Chevrolat (1842: 606); Blepharidella : Blepharidella sjostedti Weise, 1910a: 219 (Kilimanjaro, Kibonoto), by subsequent designation by Furth (1998: 12); Blepharidina : Blepharida guttulata Baly, 1881: 52 (Angola), by original designation; Eutheca : Eutheca haroldi Baly, 1878c: 205 (Lake Nyassa), designation by monotypy.

Distribution.

Afrotropical (excluding Madagascar), Nearctic, Neotropical and Southern Palaearctic (Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia) regions (Fig. 297).

Ecology.

The Afrotropical species of Blepharida are generally associated with shrubs of Rhus ( Anacardiaceae ) ( Furth and Young 1988: 496; Prathapan and Chaboo 2011: 97-105; personal data).

Notes.

Sub-Saharan Africa has about thirty-five described species. Two species from Madagascar previously attributed to this genus, Blepharida multiguttata Duvivier (1891: 242) and Blepharida insignis Brancsik (1897: 130), are transferred to Xanthophysca Fairmaire. The nominotypical subgenus of Blepharida is mainly widespread in Nearctic and Neotropical regions, whereas the subgenus Blepharidina Bechyné is restricted to the Afrotropical region ( Furth 1998).