Texas Beetle Information

Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn

Brown-headed Flea Beetle

Systena hudsonias (Förster)

Family Chrysomelidae, Subfamily Galerucinae, Tribe Alticini

Bolton, Worcester Co., Massachusetts
September 17, 2004 (Tom Murray)

State Records for Systena hudsonias

State Record Data from Riley et al. 2003

Host Plants: Polyphagous, recorded from 17 plant families (Clark et al. 2004).

Adult Activity: April 10 to June 27 in Alabama based on 13 specimens (Balsbaugh & Hays 1972).

Biology: Larvae feed on roots (Arnett et al. 2002).

Similar Species:

About 90 described species comprise this genus which is distributed throughout the New World with most species found in the tropics.
Nineteen species are recorded from America north of Mexico (Arnett et al. 2002).

Texas Taxa: (per Riley et al. 2003)

Systena blanda Melsheimer
Systena collaris Crotch
Systena corni Schaeffer
Systena elongata (Fabricius)
Systena frontalis (Fabricius)
Systena gracilenta Blake
Systena hudsonias (Forster)
Systena laevis Blake
Systena marginalis (Illiger)
Systena mitis (LeConte)
Systena pallicornis Schaeffer
Systena sexnotata Fall

Stamp: Systena sp. - Venezuela

Biography:

Johann Reinhold Forster (1729 – 1798) - Wikipedia
Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754 – 1794) - Wikipedia

References:

Arnett, R.H., Jr., M.C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley & J.H. Frank. (editors). 2002. American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL. xiv + 861 pp.

Balsbaugh, E.U. & K.L. Hays. 1972. The Leaf beetles of Alabama (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Auburn University Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 441:1-223.

Blake, D.H. 1935. Notes on Systena. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society, 30(3): 89-109, pl. 3.

Clark, S.M., D.G. LeDoux, T.N. Seeno, E.G. Riley, A.J. Gilbert & J.M. Sullivan. 2004. Host plants of leaf beetle species occurring in the United States and Canada (Coleoptera: Megalopodidae, Orsodacnidae, Chrysomelidae exclusive of Bruchinae). Coleopterists Society, Special Publication no. 2, 476 pp.

Lawson, F.A. 1991. Chrysomelidae (Chrysomeloidea) Pp. 568-593. in: Stehr, F.W. (editor) Immature Insects. Volume 2. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa. xiv + 975 pp.

Lee, J. E., S.W. Lingafelter, & A.S. Konstantinov. 1998. Larval morphology of Systena blanda Melsheimer (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Alticinae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 100(3): 484-488.

Lingafelter, S.W., A.S. Konstantinov, & J.E. Lee. 1998. Systena Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Alticinae): Notes on nomenclature, redescription of the genus, and a preliminary discussion of characters and phylogenetic relationships. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 100(3): 467 483.

Peterson, A. 1951. Larvae of Insects: Part II, Coleoptera, Diptera, Neuroptera, Siphonaptera, Mecoptera, Trichoptera. Edwards Bros., Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich. 416 p.

Riley, E.G., S.M. Clark, & T.N. Seeno. 2003. Catalog of the leaf beetles of America north of Mexico (Coleoptera: Megalopodidae, Orsodacnidae and Chrysomelidae, excluding Bruchinae). Coleopterists Society, Special Publication no. 1, 290 pp.