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DOI: 10.1478/AAPP.932A2

AAPP l Atti della Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti

Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali
ISSN 1825-1242

Vol. 93, No. 2, A2 (2015)

THE ALTICINI (COLEOPTERA: CHRYSOMELIDAE, GALERUCINAE)
OF SICILY: RECENT RECORDS AND UPDATED CHECKLIST

COSIMO B AVIERA 0 * ANO M AURIZIO BIONDI b

(communicated by Salvatore Fasulo)

ABSTRACT. This paper compiles an updated checklist of the Sicilian flea beetle species
(Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae, Alticini) by a criticai bibliographic screening and
adding new materia!, mainly collected by the first author in the last few decades. The data
provided expand the known distribution of many poorly known species in Sicily. An updated
checklist of the species recorded from the island, including those based oo unpublished
data or extracted from recently examined materia!, is supplied: 161 species are reported,
about half of the whole Italian flea beetle fauna presently known. The new records for Sicily
include seven species: Altica carduorum Meneville-Guérin, 1858; Chaerocnema obesa
(Boieldieu, 1859); Longitarsus helvolus Kutschera, 1863 ; L. monticola Kutschera, 1863;
L. rectilineatus (Foudras, 1860); Mniophila muscorum (Koch, 1803) and the alien species
Epitrix hirtipennis (Melsheimer, 1847), an invasive pest of tobacco from North America.
Finally, we question the occurrence of Longitarsus membranaceus (Foudras, 1960) in Sicily.

l. Introduction

The leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) are a highly diverse farnily among the other phy-
tophagous insects, including 37,000 described species, arranged in 19 subfamilies and
more than 2,000 genera (Jolivet and K.Verma 2002). The tribe Alticini is included within
the subfamily Galerucinae with its closely related tribe Galerucini (Bouchard et al. 2011).
This is probably the largest and most diverse tribe of Chrysomelidae, with more than 500
genera and 4,000-8,000 species worldwide (Seeno and Wilcox 1982), mostly small, highly
specialized phytophagous, with hind legs designed for jumping with a more or less enlarged
sclerified apodeme in the metafemora. The presence of this structure and the thickened
hind femurs in which it is contained are widely used to separate this group from other
chrysomelids. Just onl y in the Palaearctic Region about 1400 species, divided into 90
genera, are known (Gruev and Doberl 1997, 2005). Many species are harmful to cultivated
plants, often causing significant damage. The knowledge of the Alticini fau na of Sicily,
in dose relationship with its centrallocation in the Mediterranean basin botspot, with a
complex paleogeographic history and wide habitat diversity, provides an important aid in
understanding the dynarnics of colonization from Mediterranean environments (Stroscio
et al. 2011). AJticini constitute an important taxonomic group from comparative biodiver-
sity studies and conservation activities, not only because of their dose association with