Aslamidium Borowiec, 1984

Sekerka, Lukáš, 2014, Review of Imatidiini genera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 54 (1), pp. 257-314 : 270-271

Aslamidium Borowiec, 1984

( Figs 5–6 )

Imatidium sensu Aslam, 1966: 689 (based on erroneous type designation).

Aslamidium Borowiec, 1984: 412 . Type species: Cassida capense Herbst, 1799 by original designation.

Neoaslamidium Borowiec, 1998: 371 (valid subgenus). Type species: Himatidium formosum Spaeth, 1907 by original designation.

Distinguishing characters. Aslamidium species can be readily distinguished by the presence of large latero-basal impressions on the pronotum in combination with hypognathous mouthparts and the presence of an interantennal carina. Other Imatidiini species have the surface of the pronotum even, without prominent impressions. The two subgenera can be distinguished by the shape of the pronotum, which is semicircular in Aslamidium s. str. ( Fig. 5 ) and subquadratic in Neoaslamidium ( Fig. 6 ).

Remarks. FABRICIUS (1801) proposed the genus Imatidium and included ¿ve species: I. fasciatum Fabricius, 1801 , I. lineola Fabricius, 1801 , I. sanguineum Fabricius, 1801 , I. thoracicum Fabricius, 1801 , and I. trimaculatum Fabricius, 1801 . LATREILLE (1810) designated I. thoracicum Fabricius, 1801 as the type species. Subsequently, DUPONCHEL & CHEVROLAT (1843) designated I. fasciatum as the type species and following authors mostly accepted this designation as valid (i.e. CHENU 1884, SPAETH 1938, MONRÓS & VIANA 1947).

ASLAM (1966) revised the generic concept of Imatidium and considered Cassida capense Herbst, 1799 (= I. fasciatum ) as the type species, proposing a new genus, Himatidiella Aslam, 1966 for species related to Imatidium thoracicum Fabricius, 1801 , with the latter designated as the type species. Most likely, Aslam overlooked LATREILLE’ s (1810) designation, despite it being considered as valid by HINCKS (1952), and followed the concept of DUPONCHEL & CHEVROLAT (1843) instead. However, LATREILLE’ s (1810) designation is the oldest available correct designation, thus remaining valid under the ICZN (1999), because of this BOROWIEC (1984) proposed a new genus Aslamidium for Imatidium sensu ASLAM (1966) .

Most recently, BOROWIEC (1998) divided Aslamidium into two subgenera on the basis of the body shape.

Number of species. Aslamidium – 7, Neoaslamidium – 8 ( BOROWIEC 1998; BOROWIEC & SASSI 2001; STAINES 2006a, 2013).

Key to species. BOROWIEC & SASSI (2001) and STAINES (2006a, 2013) cover all known species.

Biology. Only four species have published host plant associations. These mainly include two plant families, Marantaceae (mainly Calathea spp. ) and Heliconiaceae ( Heliconia spp. ), of the Zingiberales (i.e. SPAETH 1938, MESKINS et al. 2008). According to our observations (Windsor & Sekerka, unpubl. data) most species prefers various Calathea species , particularly the subgenus Neoaslamidium , which seems to be exclusively associated with this plant genus. Two species of the nominotypical subgenus were recorded from both plant families and we observed two other species feeding exclusively on Heliconia species (Sekerka & Windsor, unpubl. data). The record of Aslamidium (Neoaslamidium) strandi ( Uhmann, 1930) on Rubiaceae by FLOWERS & JANZEN (1997) is probably based on an occasional sitting record, which was almost surely not its true host plant.

Larvae of most species feed on open leaf surfaces, mainly on the upper side of the leaf.

Distribution. Mexico to Bolivia and south Brazil.

Figures

Figs 1–11. Dorsal habitus. 1 – Homalispa batesii Baly, 1858, French Guyana: Mt. Kaw; 2 – Cyclantispa gracilis (Baly, 1885), Panama: La Fortuna; 3 –Xanthispa cimicoides (Guérin-Méneville, 1844), French Guyana: Le Larivot; 4 – Imatidium thoracicum Fabricius, 1801, Ecuador: Cascada San Rafael; 5 – Aslamidium (s. str.) capense (Herbst, 1799), French Guyana: Fourgassie; 6 – Aslamidium (Neoaslamidium) pichinchaensis Borowiec, 1998, Ecuador: Puerto Misahuallí; 7 – Calliaspis sachaensis Borowiec & Stojczew, 1998, Ecuador: Shushu¿ndi; 8 – Spaethaspis lloydi Hincks, 1952, Ecuador: Río Puno. 9 – Xenispa testaceicornis (Pic, 1926), Bolivia: Refugio Los Volcanes; 10 – Xenispa costaricensis (Uhmann, 1930), Panama:La Fortuna;11 – Euxema insignis Baly, 1858, syntype, Panama: Volcan de Barú. All scale bars = 2.5 mm.