Platyauchenia Sturm 1843: 358

Synonomys

None.

Type Species

Cassida latreillei Castelnau (=Platyauchenia limbata Sturm).

Diagnosis

Platyauchenia can be distinguished by following combination of characters:

• the lateral margin of the pronotumpronotum:
  occupies all of dorsal part of the prothorax; in anterior angles or posterior angles there may be a small tubercle or pore with a seta
  and the elytra lacking long, stiff spines
• the head lacking a frontal horn
• the pronotumpronotum:
  occupies all of dorsal part of the prothorax; in anterior angles or posterior angles there may be a small tubercle or pore with a seta
  having a tuft of setae in each angle
• the filiform antennae having 11-antennomeres
• the elytral punctures not being in regular rows
• the elytra lacking costae
• the pronotumpronotum:
  occupies all of dorsal part of the prothorax; in anterior angles or posterior angles there may be a small tubercle or pore with a seta
  being nearly as wide as the base of the pronotum
• the body being elongate

Description

Head: clypeusclypeus:
usually quadrangular, elongate; joined to the labrum
transverse, deeply sulcate; maxillary palps with 4 palpomeres, palpomeres 1 to 3 short, equal in length and width, cylindrical, 4 large, rounded, truncate.

Antenna: filiform, apical antennomere widest; with 11-antennomeres.

Pronotum: nearly as wide as base of elytra, widest at base, narrowing anteriorly; lateral margin evenly arcuate from base to apex; disc highly convex, depressed laterally on each side of disc; basal and anterior margins bisinuate; with tuft of setae in each angle.

Scutellum: triangular, rounded at apex.

Elytron: convex; punctate, punctures not in regular rows; no costae; widest in middle, narrowing anteriorly and posteriorly; margined laterally.

Distribution

Brazil.

World Fauna

Number of species: 2. Key to the species: Staines (2007).

Hosts

Cocos nucifera L., Diplothemium sp. (Arecaceae) (Maulik 1933, 1940; Bondar 1924). Maulik (1933, 1937) incorrectly listed the host plant as Theobroma cacao L. (Maulik 1940).

References

Bondar, G. 1924. Nota addicional sobre insectos damninhos ao coqueiro. Correio Agricola 2(4):111-112.

Maulik, S. 1933. On the structure of larvae of hispine beetles-III. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 669-680.

Maulik, S. 1937. Distributional correlation between Hispine beetles and their host plants. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, Series A:129‑159.

Maulik, S. 1940. The food plant of Platyauchenia latreillei (Castelnau) (Hispinae, Chrysomelidae, Coleoptera). The Annals and Magazine of Natural History (11)5:256.

Staines, C. L. 2007. A new Species of Platyauchenia Sturm, 1843 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae) from Brazil. Insecta Mundi 0012:1-7.

Sturm, J. 1843. Catalog der Kaefer-Sammlung von Jacob Sturm. Nürnberg. 386 pp.