Published September 30, 2015 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Chalepus bicolor

Authors/Creators

Description

Chalepus bicolor (Olivier, 1792)

My previous account of this species did not mention the egg because it was absent from the mine from which I reared an adult. This was possibly a secondary mine, made by a larva that had wandered from its original leaf. The two other mines I examined had an egg attached to the lower surface near the tip of the leaf (Fig. 1). The egg is oval, about 1.3 mm by 0.9 mm, and covered with a transparent secretion that glues it to the lower leaf surface. This in turn is capped by a hollow, rounded structure that is covered with minute bumps. This structure is broken into two or more pieces once the egg is hatched (and I have not observed unhatched eggs), but it is a secreted covering for the egg rather than a broken eggshell. The larva mines directly into the leaf without damaging the exposed surface of the egg, so it is unclear how the covering comes to be hollow and broken.

Adults feed on the upper surface of leaves of Dichanthelium clandestinum (L.) (Poaceae) in August, producing whitish patches similar to those made by Chalepus walshii (Crotch) on other grasses (Eiseman 2014) but more irregular in outline.

Notes

Published as part of Eiseman, Charles S., 2015, Notes on Leaf-Mining Chrysomelidae (Coleoptera) in New England, pp. 453-458 in The Coleopterists Bulletin 69 (3) on page 453, DOI: 10.1649/0010-065x-69.3.453, http://zenodo.org/record/10105982

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Scientific name authorship
Olivier
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Arthropoda
Order
Coleoptera
Family
Chrysomelidae
Genus
Chalepus
Species
bicolor
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Chalepus bicolor (Olivier, 1792) sec. Eiseman, 2015

References

  • Eiseman, C. S. 2014. New host records and other notes on North American leaf-mining Chrysomelidae (Coleoptera). The Coleopterists Bulletin 68 (3): 351 - 359.