The American Species of Chrysolina Mots. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

This paper offers a taxonomic arrangement of the North American species of Chrysolina Motschulsky. Sixteen species and one subspecies are recognized. The species of the region were reviewed last by Van Dyke (1938, Bull. Brooklyn Ent. Soc. 33: 43-58), who recognized eight species and one subspecies. The arrangement offered below differs from the previous arrangement as follows. (1) Three species, caurina, finitima, and extorris, are described as new. (2) Two Siberian species, cavigera (J. Sahlb.) and magniceps (J. Sahlb.), are recorded from arctic Alaska; these have not been reported previously from North America, for American authors confused them with subsulcata (Mann.). (3) Included is one introduced European species, staphylaea (L.), that Van Dyke omitted. Also included are three European species recently introduced for control of the weed Hypericum perforatum L.; these are hyperici (Forst.), quadrigemina (Suffr.), and varians (Schall.). (4) C. blaisdelli Van Dyke and the subsequently described C. engelhardti Hatch (1939, Bull. Brooklyn Ent. Soc. 34: 49) are omitted, for they were transferred to Chrysomela by Brown (1956, Canadian Ent. 88: suppl. 3, p. 17). (5) One form, schaefferi new name (for auripennis cyanea Schaeffer, not Linnaeus), is elevated to specific rank. (6) One form, vidua (Rog.), is reduced to subspecific status under flavomarginata (Say).