Subfamily Cryptocephalinae Gyllenhal, 1813

Cryptocephalinae

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Subfamily Cryptocephalinae Gyllenhal, 1813

Cryptocephalinae Gyllenhal, L. 1813. Insects Suecica. Classis I. Coleoptera sive Eleuterata, Tomus I, pars III. Scaris. 734 pp. [582].
Clytrinae Lacordaire, J.T. 1848. Monographie des coléoptères subpentamères de la famillie des phytophages. Vol. 2. Mémoires de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège 5: 1-890 [9].
Chlamisinae Gressitt, J.L. 1946. Chinese chrysomelid beetles of the subfamily Chlamisinae. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 39: 84-100 [84].

Introduction

The subfamily Cryptocephalinae is moderately large, with approximately 120 genera and 4000 species (Seeno & Wilcox 1982, plus numerous taxonomic revisions since). The Australian fauna is rich, with at least 25 genera and 554 species; the subfamily is found throughout the continent.

The Cryptocephalinae include two former subfamilies, Chlamisinae and Clytrinae (Crowson 1955; Reid 1995), downgraded to tribes. Cryptocephalinae adults are diverse in structure, but the subfamily is characterised by its biology and larval structure is remarkably uniform. Adult females coat their eggs individually in faecal material and the larvae are obligate case-bearers, the latter feature shared only by the sister-taxon, Lamprosomatinae, which is absent from Australia. Pupation is within the case, usually in leaf-litter, but in some Australian species the larva climbs foliage to pupate on grass stems or under bark (Reid 1999a).

Chlamisini has relatively few genera and species, most of which are South American (Chamorro-Lacayo & Konstantinov 2009). They are rarely collected. Adults of this tribe are remarkable for their mimicry of large caterpillar droppings. The egg, with the faecal coating, is attached by chorionic stalk to the host plant (Brown & Funk 2005). There are two Australian species plus one introduced biocontrol agent (Reid 1991b; Julien & Griffiths 1998).

There are more than 60 genera of Clytrini and hundreds of species, particularly in the Americas and Africa. The larvae scavenge in ant nests and the adults have short appendages typical of myrmecophiles. Australia is often described as particularly rich in ants (e.g. Shattuck 1999), yet it has only two, rare, species of this ant-associated tribe (Lawrence & Britton 1994).

All remaining Australian species of Cryptocephalinae belong to the tribe Cryptocephalini, a group that is defined by lacking the synapomorphies of the other tribes. In Australia this group is disproportionately large, with 11 genera and more than 450 species. Most of the Australian genera are identifiable from the key to South Australian taxa (Matthews & Reid 2002), the two remaining being confined to the east coast (Reid 1991a, 1998). There also two introduced American genera and species on the east coast: Metallactus brought in deliberately for control of Baccharis (McFadyen 1987); and Diachus introduced accidentally on Leucaena (Reid 1988). Host plants are predominantly eudicots, in Australia usually either eucalypts or acacias (Matthews & Reid 2002). Many species feed on flowers. Eggs are dropped after faecal coating by the adult females. The larvae occur predominantly in leaf litter, where they skeletonise leaves and decorticate twigs, but they may also feed on living plant tissue (Reid 1999b).

A molecular phylogeny of the subfamily was more recently provided by Gómez-Zurita & Cardoso (2021), who reinstated tribe Fulcidacini with the inclusion of Chlamisus moved from its former position in tribe Chlamisini, rendering the latter tribe as no longer occurring in Australia.

Diagnosis

After Reid (2000)
Adult: procoxal cavity closed by insertion of sides of apex of prosternal process into apices of pronotal hypomera, rarely slightly open; without bifid tarsal setae; apical ventrites (at least 4 and 5) fused; sternite 8 without apodeme; tegmen without dorsal cap and penis apically setose; female with complex rectal apparatus.
Larva: C-shaped and enclosed in transportable capsule; 6 stemmata present; labrum fused to clypeus; spiracles cribriform; eggbursters confined to thorax; maxillary palpi 3-segmented; labial palpi 2-segmented; legs prominent, without paronychial appendix on tibia.