Hyphasis Harold, 1877b

Biondi, Maurizio & D'Alessandro, Paola, 2012, Afrotropical flea beetle genera: a key to their identification, updated catalogue and biogeographical analysis (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae, Alticini), ZooKeys 253, pp. 1-158 : 34

Hyphasis Harold, 1877b Figs 54199-200325

= Hyphasoma Jacoby, 1903b (synonymized by Chen 1936)

Physoma Clark, 1863 (pars)

References.

Clark 1863: 165; Harold 1877b: 434; Jacoby 1901: 298; 1903b: 110; Maulik 1926: 158, 166; Chen 1936: 627; Heikertinger and Csiki 1940: 457; Bechyné 1948a: 10; 1958a: 90 (as Hyphasoma ); Konstantinov and Vanderberg 1996: 369.

Type species

. Hyphasis : Oedionychis magica Harold, 1877b: 434 (India), by original designation. Hyphasoma : Hyphasoma inconspicua Jacoby, 1903b: 111 (India), by subsequent designation of Maulik (1926: 156).

Distribution.

Mascarene Islands (probably introduced), Oriental region and South-Eastern part of the Palaearctic region (Fig. 325).

Ecology.

This genus is associated with plants in the families Verbenaceae and Lamiaceae (cf. Jolivet and Hawkeswood 1995).

Notes.

The Malagasy species initially attributed to this Oriental genus were previously transferred to Hyphasoma Jacoby ( Heikertinger and Csiki 1940) and then to Physoma Clark ( Bechyné 1948a). Bechyné (1958a) reports Hyphasis (as Hyphasoma ) sita ( Maulik 1926: 158), described from Sri Lanka (= Ceylon), as an introduced species on the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius). We here confirm that this flea beetle genus does occur on the island of Mauritius.