Platypria (Dichirispa) Gestro 1890: 229

Synonomys

None.

Type Species

Platypria (Dichirispa) abdominalis Chapuis.

Diagnosis

Platypria (Dichirispa) can be distinguished by the following combination of characters:

• lateral margin of 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 elytra with long, stiff spines
• antennae with 9-antennomeres
• pronotum pronotum:
  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
  without spines on anterior margin
• elytra with lateral margin expanded at humeri without translucent patches

Description

Body broad; elongate; subconvex; color yellowish to brown with darker markings; total length 4.2 to 7.2 mm.

Head: small broad; labrumlabrum:
triangular, joined to the clypeus and the oral orifice
transverse, very short; eyeeye:
elongate, slightly prominent, multifaceted; usually slightly kidney-shaped
elongate, oval.

Antenna: filiform; ½ body length; with 9-antennomeres; antennomere 1 subincrassate; 2 obconic, ½ length of 1; 3 longer than 1 and 2 combined; 4 to 8 decreasing in length; 9 slightly longer than 8, rounded at apex.

Pronotum: transverse; lateral margin rounded with forward projecting, sharply palmate lamina without translucent patches; anterior angle rounded, without spines; anterior margin straight; posterior angle acute; posterior margin straight; surface punctate.

Scutellum: broadly triangular.

Elytron: lateral margin sinuate; exterior apical angle rounded; apical margin rounded; lateral and apical margins with continuous broad lamina with large palmate expansion without translucent patches at humerus; humerus angulate, dentate; with 8 rows of punctures plus scutellar row; disc with tubercles and spines.

Distribution

Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Basso, Insel Principe, Insel São Tomé, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

World Fauna

Described species: 13 (Staines 2012). Key: Würmli 1978 [this key has a number of flaws in it].

Hosts

Desmodium, Pueraria (Fabaceae); Icacina (Icacinaceae).

References

Gestro, R. 1890. Viaggio di Leonardo Fea in Birmania e Regioni Vicine. XXIX. Enumerazione delle Hispidae. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova (2)10(30):225-268.

Staines, C. L. 2012. Tribe Hispini. Catalog of the hispines of the world (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae). http://entomology.si.edu/Collections_Coleoptera.html

Würmli, M. 1978. Revision der Gattung Platypria: Die Arten der Orientalischen und Australischen Region (Platypria s. str.). Bollettino della Societa entgmologica italiana 110:210-223.