Ophraella nuda

Ophraella nuda
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Family:	Chrysomelidae
Genus:	Ophraella
Species:	O. nuda
Binomial name
	Ophraella nuda; LeSage, 1986

Ophraella nuda, the naked flea beetle,^[1] is a species of skeletonizing leaf beetle in the family Chrysomelidae.

Details

It is endemic to the prairies of southern Alberta.^[2] Its host plant is povertyweed, a common plant in shortgrass prairies. It is paraphyletic with Ophraella artemisiae which it differs little from genetically despite being dissimilar morphologically, this is a result of peripatric speciation. Both the holotype and the allotype of naked flea beetle were collected in 1955 near the locality of Comrey, next to the Milk River Valley.^[3] Other specimens come from Hilda, Medicine Hat, Onefour, and Waterton. Specimens from Upstate New York are thought to have been mislabelled.

Description

Ophraella nuda is a yellow-brown coloured flea beetle with four vertical lines on its elytra and three brown spots on its pronotum. Females are larger than males, with males being 3.4-4.6 mm long and 1.8-2.2 mm wide and females being 3.9-4.8 mm long and 2-2.4 mm wide. The feature that distinguishes O. nuda from all other similar species is that the elytra looks extremely glabrous, unlike the visibly haired elytras of O. communa and O. arctica. The elytra however does actually have short, fine, transparent hair which is only visible at higher magnifications.^[4]

References

^ Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council. National General Status Working Group. 2022. Wild Species 2020: The General Status of Species in Canada. 172 pp. ISBN 978-1-7387673-0-4 French title: Espèces sauvages 2020: la situation générale des espèces au Canada. wildlife-species.canada.ca/species-risk-registry/virtual_sara/files/reports/Wild%20Species%202020.pdf
^ Funk, Daniel J.; Futuyma, Douglas J.; Ortí, Guillermo; Meyer, Axel (October 20, 1995). "A History Of Host Associations And Evolutionary Diversification For ophraella (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae): New Evidence From Mitochondrial DNA". Evolution. 49 (5): 1008–1017. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.1995.tb02335.x. PMID 28564876.
^ Government of Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada. "Information archivée dans le Web" (PDF). publications.gc.ca.
^ LeSage, Laurent (1986). "A Taxonomic Monograph Of The Nearctic Galerucine Genus Ophraella Wilcox (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)". The Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada. 118 (S133): 3–75. doi:10.4039/entm118133fv – via Cambridge.

[1] Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council. National General Status Working Group. 2022. Wild Species 2020: The General Status of Species in Canada. 172 pp. ISBN 978-1-7387673-0-4 French title: Espèces sauvages 2020: la situation générale des espèces au Canada. wildlife-species.canada.ca/species-risk-registry/virtual_sara/files/reports/Wild%20Species%202020.pdf

[2] Funk, Daniel J.; Futuyma, Douglas J.; Ortí, Guillermo; Meyer, Axel (October 20, 1995). "A History Of Host Associations And Evolutionary Diversification For ophraella (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae): New Evidence From Mitochondrial DNA". Evolution. 49 (5): 1008–1017. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.1995.tb02335.x. PMID 28564876.

[3] Government of Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada. "Information archivée dans le Web" (PDF). publications.gc.ca.

[4] LeSage, Laurent (1986). "A Taxonomic Monograph Of The Nearctic Galerucine Genus Ophraella Wilcox (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)". The Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada. 118 (S133): 3–75. doi:10.4039/entm118133fv – via Cambridge.

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