Chaeridiona Baly, 1869

Staines, C. L., 2007, A review of the genus Chaeridiona Baly, 1869 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae), Zootaxa 1521 (1), pp. 19-29 : 20

Chaeridiona Baly

Chaeridiona Baly 1869: 380 (type species: Chaeridiona metallica Baly , designated by Maulik 1919). Chapuis 1875: 309 (redescription); Uhmann 1951: 24 (faunal list), 1958: 251 (catalog), 1964: 466 (catalog); Gressitt & Kimoto 1963: 911 ( China species); Würmli 1975: 56 (key to genera), 1976: 402 (revision); Seeno & Wilcox 1982: 164 (catalog); Chen et al. 1986: 191 ( China species); Jolivet & Hawkeswood 1995: 155 (host plants); Basu 1999: 163 ( India species); Kimoto 1999: 109 (southeast Asia species).

Choeridiona Gemminger & Harold 1876: 3609 [misspelling] (catalog); Donckier 1899: 571 (catalog); Weise 1911a: 49, 1911b: 73 (catalog); Maulik 1919: 85 ( India species); Gressitt 1950: 77 ( China species).

Small; body wedge-shaped; coarsely punctate, punctures may coalesce, punctures in regular rows on elytra; pronotum with tooth in each anterior angle; color brown to dark red, many with a metallic green or blue sheen. Head: produced between eyes; angulate in front; maxillary palpomere 1 small, 2–3 subequal in length, short, 4 as long as 1–3 combined; mentum oblong, laterally constricted; ligula inserted on dorsal side of mentum, base invisible, apex large, subquadrate, longer than mentum; labial palps absent or with 1 palpomere; clypeus more or less conically raised in middle. Antenna: robust; more than ½ length of body; antennomeres cylindrical; I thicker than others, rounded. Pronotum: subcylindrical; narrowly margined laterally. Elytron: combined, much wider than base of pronotum; dilated apically; apex obliquely truncate; sutural angle rounded, emarginate; coarsely punctate-striate; alternate interspaces carinate, carinae flattened. Leg: moderately long, relatively slender; unarmed; tarsomere 1 short, 2 wider, 3 widest and longest, 4 exceeding lobes of 3; tarsal claws long, distinct. Male genitalia aedeagus sclerotized, showing considerable curvature from below; apex tapering to acute point.

Chaeridiona can be distinguished from the other two genera in the tribe Oncocephalini ( Prionispa Chapuis and Oncocephala Agassiz ) by having the labial palps absent or with one palpomere; with antennomeres not striate and antennomere 3 longer than 1 and 2 combined; by the head being carinate between antennal bases; and by the pronotum without tubercles.

Chaeridiona tuberculata Chen & Yu 1964 is a homonym of Ch. tuberculata Uhmann 1961 . It is congeneric with Prionispa (labial palps having 3 palpomeres and with antennomere 3 longer than 1 and 2 combined) and is transferred to that genus. This makes it a primary homonym of P. tuberculata Pic, 1926 ; Prionispa tuberculata Chen & Yu is renamed Prionispa cheni nomen novum (ICZN Article 60).

Chaeridiona clavata Yu 1992 has labial palps with 3 palpomeres and antennomere 3 longer than 1 and 2 combined. The makes the species congeneric with Prionispa and it is transferred to that genus.