Nemognatha chrysomeloides

Nemognatha chrysomeloides
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Family:	Meloidae
Genus:	Nemognatha
Species:	N. chrysomeloides
Binomial name
Nemognatha chrysomeloides (Linnaeus, 1763)

Nemognatha chrysomeloides is a species of oil beetle (Meloidae) from Central and South America.

Ecology

Nemognatha chrysomeloides is a parasite of Melitoma marginella and M. segmentaria from Mexico to Argentina. Both N. chrysomeloides and Melitoma are restricted to the same host plant – Ipomoea – and so the rate of parasitism may be comparatively high.^[1]

Taxonomy

Nemognatha chrysomeloides was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1763 work Centuria Insectorum, under the name Meloe chrysomeloides. It is a very variable species, and as such, many synonyms have since been published:^[2]

• Cantharis chrysomeloides (Linnaeus, 1763): Thunberg, 1784
• Lytta chrysomeloides (Linnaeus, 1763): Schoenherr, 1817
• Nemognathus coeruleipennis Perty, 1830
• Nemognatha versicolor Chevrolat, 1834
• Nemognatha abdominalis Lucas in Laporte de Castelnau, 1859
• Nemognatha bicolor Lucas in Laporte de Castelnau, 1859 (non LeConte, 1853; nec Walker, 1866)
• Nematognatha lucasi Gemminger, 1870
• Nemognatha atra Beauregard, 1890 (non Zonitis atrum Schwartz, 1808; nec Gnathium atrum Dugès, 1889)
• Nemognatha coeruleipennis var. fulviventris Beauregard, 1890
• Nemognatha pallidicollis Beauregard, 1890
• Nemognatha violacea Beauregard, 1890
• Nemognatha beauregardi Pic, 1910 (replacement name for N. atra Beauregard, 1890)
• Zonitis chrysomeloides (Linnaeus, 1763): Denier, 1935
• Zonitis beauregardi (Pic, 1910): Blackwelder, 1945
• Nemognatha chrysomeloides ab. markli Kaszab, 1963

References

	Insects portal
	Arthropods portal

1. ^ E. G. Linsley, J. W. MacSwain & C. D. Michener (1980). Nesting Biology and Associated of Melitoma (Hymenoptera, Anthophoridae). University of California Publications in Entomology, Volume 90. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-09618-5. 
2. ^ M. García-París, D. Buckley & G. Parra-Olea (2007). "Catálogo taxonómico-geográfico de los coleópteros de la familia Meloidae de México" (PDF). Graellsia 63 (2): 165–258. http://graellsia.revistas.csic.es/index.php/graellsia/article/download/92/92.