Cassida rubiginosa Muller 1776

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Majka, Christopher G., Lesage, Laurent
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Arthropoda; Insecta; Coleoptera; Chrysomelidae; Cassida; Cassida rubiginosa; Canada; Riley; Paterson; Fennoscandia; Siberia
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6228615; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6228615

Cassida rubiginosa Müller, 1776 Identification. Live adults of C. rubiginosa are vivid green on dorsal surface, often with yellowish elytral margins, and are black underneath. This green pigment is ephemeral, and dried specimens preserved in collections quickly turn brownish. Its medium size (6-8 mm), confused elytral punctures, and the vivid light green color make adults recognizable immediately, even by non-experts (Fig. 1). The first instar larva was described and illustrated by Świçtojańska (2004). Egg bursters are absent (Cox 1994 a). The mature larva was described by Paterson (1931, sub Cassida viridis) and illustrated by Peterson (1951). It can be identified using the key to species of the British cassidine larvae (Van Emden 1962). Descriptions and illustrations of the pupa of C. rubiginosa, are found in Paterson (1931) (sub C. viridis) and Palij & Klepikova (1957). A key, including C. rubiginosa, is provided by Palij & Klepikova (1957). History and distribution. Cassida rubiginosa was first discovered in North America in 1902 in Lévis, near Québec City, where beetles were observed to be defoliating burdock (Arctium minus (Hill.) Bernh., Asteraceae) (Fyles 1902, 1903; Roy 1902). Schaeffer (1903, 1904a, 1904 b) contributed to clarify its identity. It was subsequently reported by Brown (1940) on burdock, in Montréal, at Knowlton and Brome in the Eastern Townships of Québec, and in Shediac, New Brunswick. The species is now widely established both across Canada from Alberta east to New Brunswick, and in the United States from Maine south to Virginia and west through Ohio to Wisconsin and South Dakota (Riley et al. 2003). In the Old World, it is found throughout continental Europe (not yet recorded in the Netherlands) from Fennoscandia south through the Baltic republics to Greece and Spain, in Great Britain, and across Siberia to the northern Far East of Russia (Audisio 2005 b). Biology. Cassida rubiginosa has been well studied in Europe by Kleine (1917 a) and Kosior (1975). In Eastern Canada, C. ...