Eletica Dejean, 1834

Bologna, M. A. & Pinto, J. D., 2002, The Old World genera of Meloidae (Coleoptera): a key and synopsis, Journal of Natural History 36 (17), pp. 2013-2102 : 2042

8. Eletica Dejean, 1834 (1833 –1837)

(gure 2)

Iletica Gemminger and Harold, 1870 (unjusti ed emendation).

Sibuteletica Pic, 1913 (as subgenus; currently valid). Type species: Eletica lemoulti Pic, 1913 , by monotypy.

Meteletica Kaszab, 1955 (as subgenus; currently valid). Type species: Cantharis testacea Olivier, 1795 , by original designation.

Proeletica Kaszab, 1955 (as subgenus; currently valid). Type species: Eletica colorata Harold, 1878 , by original designation.

Type species. Lytta rufa Fabricius, 1801 (= Lytta bipustulata Fabricius, 1801 ), by monotypy (see Selander, 1991). 34 spp.

Geographic distribution. Africa south of the Sahara, India, SE Asia.

References

Taxonomy. Kaszab (1955a key and catalogue); Saha (1972).

Anatomy. Gupta (1971, 1978).

Bionomics. Wellman (1908); Pinto et al. (1996).

Larvae. Pinto et al. (1996).

Notes

Eletica is divided into four subgenera (Kaszab, 1955a). The taxonomy of the African species is complex because of extreme intraspeci c variation. The two Indian species described by Saha (1972) need con rmation and may be synonyms of other Oriental species.

The rst-instar larva of two species, and the sexual and oviposition behaviours of one S African species were described by Pinto et al. (1996). The primitive behaviour and larval morphology suggest predaceous rather than parasitoid habits. Old World genera of Meloidae 2043