Alagoasa bipunctata, Santa María, Colombia

Likely a specific variety, see discussion in the comments below.

comments (15)

WildFlower

Lion

My best guess is Family: Chrysomelidae, Subfamily: Galerucinae, Tribe: Alticini but out of 588 species in the database most of which have photos I cannot find a match :(
http://coleoptera-neotropical.org/paginas/2_PAISES/Colombia/Chrysomelidae/Chrysomeloidea-col.html
http://140.247.96.247/mcz/index.php Posted 8 years ago

Pudding4brains

Lion

Hi Ferdy, cute looking beetle :o)
I would suspect some Omophoita (Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae). Omophoita equestris might come close, but I'm not at all sure and it might not be even be recorded for Colombia previously ...
There is a Dutch specialist for South-American Chrysomelidae (Rob Westerduijn) who might know more ... do you know him?
P.S. Hi WildOne - I spent too much time looking for Rob's name ;o) Posted 8 years ago, modified 8 years ago
1. WildFlower
  
  Lion
  
  Hi Arp, looking at this reference, Omophoita equestris doesn't look like a good match to me. Do you have another reference for it?
  http://coleoptera-neotropical.org/paginas/3ac_familias/chrysomeloidea/1foto/6Galerucinae/Alticini/5127-Omophoita-equestris-Fabricius.gif Posted 8 years ago
2. 1. Pudding4brains
    
    Lion
    
    Howdy,
    Like I said: I'm not at all sure(!) ;o)
    Also my concept of the habitus for the genus Omophoita might be flawed. Another genus that comes close would be Asphaera as these have historially been published under the same name, but most diagnostic characters can not be recognized of course.
    See the "Diagnostic Key for the Neotropical Alticine Genera" (Sherer, 1983) that can be found on the web.
    Also, coleo-neotrop doesn't list a single Asphaera south of Mexico/Costa Rica and Omophoita is much better represented. But I really don't know these, so I'm just guessing same as you.
    Omophoita equestris is the only one I could find quickly that has the dark bands in about the right place, but of course the apical band is shaped differently towards the suture on Ferdy's beetle. This one from Peru looks similar (but not the same) and is named Asphaera, but no indication of what the ID is based on of course:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/grandma-shirley/7705252690/in/photostream/
    
    P.S. Here are some Asphaera:
    http://chrysomelidae.miza-ucv.org.ve/taxonomy/term/758/media
    
    Posted 8 years ago, modified 8 years ago
  2. 1. Ferdy Christant
      
      Lion
      
      Thanks to both of you for the help, that's exactly what I was hoping for :) Posted 8 years ago

WildFlower

Lion

There is another collection of Chrysomelidae, but I haven't checked them all.
http://chrysomelidae.miza-ucv.org.ve/chrysomelidae/alticinae Posted 8 years ago

Pudding4brains

Lion

Maybe Alagoasa dissepta is a possibility? It is a very variable species with variants that com quite close (such as "semidivisa") Posted 7 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  Do you have any reference photo of the semidivisa variant? Can't find one. Posted 7 years ago
2. 1. Pudding4brains
    
    Lion
    
    The PDF by Bechyne linked in my comment with your black&white beetle describes some "variants" of dissepta, most of which at some point or another had been described as separate species, so for some "variants" the type specimen would also still exist for reference. On page 210 Bechyne writes for the "aberration" semidivisa:
    Die hintere dunkle Binde der Flügeldecken ist an der Naht unterbrochen (assueta Bech.) => ab. semidivisa Jacoby
    http://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Entomologische-Arbeiten-Museum-Frey_6_0074-0266.pdf
    
    So the variant/aberration had been previously described as a species semidivisa by Jacoby and as a species assueta by "Bech." (haven't looked into the full name of the author - the ICZN has officially deprecated the use of abbreviations for author names, but florists still use them). This gives us three names for searching (dissepta, semidivisa and assueta).
    To give you an idea of the variability of dissepta you can refer to the set of images for dissepta (fig 11-18) at the bottom of the same PDF. A series of specimen attributed to this species can be found here:
    http://chrysomelidae.miza-ucv.org.ve/taxonomy/term/2338/media
    There are some photograph of a specimen called dissepta semidivisa here:
    http://chrysomelidae.miza-ucv.org.ve/taxonomy/term/4569/media
    
    Again, I see some differences too, but it seems to be a fair alley of further investigation ;o)
    Posted 7 years ago, modified 7 years ago
  2. 1. Ferdy Christant
      
      Lion
      
      Thanks, was hoping for a pink one :) Posted 7 years ago
    2. 1. Pudding4brains
        
        Lion
        
        Ah, yes - that sort of "hue" is usually quickly lost in dried specimen (most reddish colours tend to fade away quickly). Additionally, quite a few species are originally described from collected specimen only, sometimes years after collecting and sending to a specialist of the era. Usually these were dried, sometimes kept in alcohol, but both methods let colours fade. Such original descriptions will mention pale yellowish brown as the main colour for species that turn out to be brightly coloured red or green or whatever in life :o)
        I don't usually have Flash installed on my system and feel that most websites that insist on Flash must not want me as a visitor, but I was too curious to know what the ZSM is doing with their digitization project, so I grabbed an old laptop with Windoze on it and had a look here:
        http://media.zsm-entomology.de/dd/col/CD-2012-0014/CD-2012-0014.html
        Two interesting beetles in that box:
        2nd row left: Asphaera pauperata Harold (going by the red dots Paratypes or some such?) could also be a close match here.
        The other one bottom row center is a possible match for your black&white but the name is "funny". I'll elaborate on that in a comment with the other beetle.
        
        Posted 7 years ago, modified 7 years ago

Pudding4brains

Lion

Consider these to be temporary notes :o)

There may well be some more candidates and I'm not up to speed with validity of the various genera, species nor the combinations thereof. So I'll just list a series of "names" currently valid or not, that seem to be associated with similar looking beetles.

The genus names Alagoasa, Asphaera, Aspicela, Omophoita and probably more seem to have been used and interchanged a lot historically, we would need a current revision to know what species goes in which genus, but all may help to find older references in any genus/species combo. The "Diagnostic Key for the Neotropical Alticine Genera" (Sherer, 1983) mentioned above somewhere might help here.

Asphaera aemula Illiger (drawer 12 ZSM)
Asphaera abendrothi Harold (drawer 12 ZSM)
Asphaera curialis Erichson (drawer 12 ZSM)
Asphaera clarki Jacoby (drawer 12 ZSM)
Asphaera biplagiata Jacoby (drawer 12 ZSM)
Asphaera fuscofasciata Jacoby ab. improvisa Bechyné (drawer 13 ZSM)
Asphaera limitata Harold (drawer 13 ZSM)
Asphaera meticulosa Harold ab. constructa (drawer 13 ZSM)
Asphaera pauperata Harold (drawer 14 ZSM)
Alagoasa dissepta (semidivisa)/(assueta)

Maybe more later
Posted 7 years ago

Christine Young

Lion

Alagoasa bipunctata, especially Alagoasa bipunctata var. boucardi seems very close, although the distribution is not an exact match. I see some similarities with Asphaera sp. too.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/114495674
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/95532510

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&taxon_id=253041&view=species Posted 2 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  Thanks! How about we identify as Alagoasa bipunctata without the variation? We normally don't create separate records for variations, at least not structurally. Posted 2 years ago
2. 1. Christine Young
    
    Lion
    
    Agree. No need to add the variety in the ID, but just good to make a note of it here. Posted 2 years ago