Pseudimatidium Aslam, 1966

Sekerka, Lukáš, 2014, Review of Imatidiini genera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 54 (1), pp. 257-314 : 288

Pseudimatidium Aslam, 1966 , stat. restit.

( Fig. 18 )

Pseudimatidium Aslam, 1966: 691 . Type species: Demotispa pallida Baly, 1858 by original designation. Demotispa sensu MORÓS & VIANA (1947) , BOROWIEC (2000), STAINES (2002, 2009).

Distinguishing characters. Pseudimatidium can be distinguished by the mouthparts not projecting but prognathous, semicircular pronotum, the presence of a sharp interantennal carina, the disc of the pronotum being regularly convex, body with a moderately broad explanate margin, and the pygidium being not visible from above ( Fig. 18 ). Some Cephaloleia and Pseudostilpnaspis species are externally similar to Pseudimatidium because of the general shape of body with a narrow explanate margin. Cephaloleia differs in the subquadratic pronotum and having the pygidium mostly visible from above. Pseudostilpnaspis species differ in the convex body and the mouthparts slightly projecting forwards.

Remarks. ASLAM (1966) proposed the genus Pseudimatidium for SPAETH’ s (1938) fourth group of Himatidium and designated Demotispa pallida Baly, 1858 as the type species. BOROWIEC (2000) considered Pseudimatidium as a junior objective synonym of Demotispa because both genera had the same type species. I restore here the validity of Pseudimatidium as the action of BOROWIEC (2000) was based on an invalid type species designation for Demotispa (for further comments see remarks under Demotispa ).

Number of species. 12 (present paper).

Key to species. SPAETH (1938) covered three species.

Biology. Pseudimatidium species are associated with various palms and their biology has been much more studied than in other Imatidiini , being pests of economically important palms such as the coconut ( Cocos nucifera L.) or African oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis Jacq. ) (i.e. BONDAR 1940a, b, 1942, 1943; BOSQ 1943; MONRÓS & VIANA 1947; ASLAM 1966).

Distribution. Mexico to northern Argentina.

Figures

Figs 12–24. Dorsal habitus. 18 – Katkispa insignis (Pic, 1934), syntype, Venezuela: Colonia Tovar; 13 – Weiseispa angusticollis (Weise, 1893), Ecuador: Río Palenque; 14 – Demotispa pulchella Baly, 1858, lectotype, Peru; 15 – Demotispa rubiginosa (Boheman, 1862), Panama: Chiriquí; 16 – Parimatidium rubrum (Boheman, 1850), French Guyana:St. Laurent du Maroni;17 – Pseudostilpnaspis lata (Baly, 1885), Panama:Santa Clara; 18 – Pseudimatidium elaeicola Aslam, 1966, Colombia: Calima area; 19 – Windsorispa latifrons (Weise, 1910), Colombia: SantoAntonio; 20 – Cephaloleia Àavipennis Baly, 1869, Ecuador: Río Hollín; 21 – Melanispa sp., Guadeloupe; 22 – Parentispa formosa (Staines, 1996), Panama: La Fortuna; 23 – Stenispa attenuata Baly, 1875, Panama: Gamboa; 24 – Lechispa parallela (Pic, 1930), syntype, Argentina: Rosas. All scale bars = 2.5 mm.