FAMILY CHRYSOMELIDAE
(Leaf beetles)
L. LeSage
This family is one of the largest group of beetles worldwide with over 50,000 known species and many additional thousands to be
discovered especially from Asia and the Neotropics; 566 species and subspecies are listed here for Canada and Alaska. All known adults are
phytophagous. Primitive plants and ferns are utilized infrequently and conifers are barely touched; deciduous trees, bushes and weeds are
preferred host plants. Some species are pollen eaters in the adult stage. Larvae show a broader ecological diversity: Donaciinae are aquatic;
Clytrinae live in ant nests where they feed on plant detritus and on ant larvae or pupae; most Cryptocephalinae feed on decaying matter in leaf
litter; Criocerinae, Chlamisinae, Chrysomelinae and Cassidinae and some Galerucinae and Alticinae feed on leaves in the open; those in
remaining subfamilies are either root feeders, root miners, stem miners, or leaf miners.
The Chrysomelidae are usually classified into 19 subfamilies (Seeno & Wilcox 1982) of which 14 occur in Canada. The leaf-beetle fauna
is relatively well-known in eastern Canada (except some alticine, galerucine, and cryptocephaline genera) but is poorly known for western
Canada. The present list follows essentially the arrangement proposed by Seeno and Wilcox (1982) except where the generic concepts have been
recently modified.
AK (41); YK (37); NT (65); BC (178); AB (208); SK (166); MB (254), ON (356); PQ (251); NB (113); NS (102); PE (17); LB (13); NF (32); H
(8); I (36)
Subfamily DONACIINAE
Genus PLATEUMARIS Thomson
P. aurifera (LeConte)
AK YT NT -
AB -
MB -
PQ -
-
-
-
NF
P. balli Askevold
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
PQ NB -
-
-
-
P. chalcea (Lacordaire)
-
-
-
BC AB SK MB ON PQ NB NS PE -
-
lodingi (Schaeffer)
shoemakeri (Schaeffer)
P. diversa (Schaeffer)
-
-
-
-
-
-
MB ON -
-
-
-
-
-
P. flavipes (Kirby)
AK YT NT BC AB SK MB ON PQ NB -
-
LB NF
wallisi (Schaeffer)
P. frosti (Sc