Phytophaga
Phytophaga is a clade of beetles within the infraorder Cucujiformia consisting of the superfamilies Chrysomeloidea and Curculionoidea that are distinctive in the plant-feeding habit combined with the tarsi being pseudotetramerous or cryptopentamerous, where the fourth tarsal segment is greatly reduced or hidden by the third tarsal segment. The Cucujoidea are a sister to the Phytophaga.[1][2] In some older literature the term Phytophaga was applied only to the Chrysomeloidea.
Families in the Phytophaga | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Phytophaga phylogeny |
Phytophaga | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Coleoptera |
Suborder: | Polyphaga |
Infraorder: | Cucujiformia |
Clade: | Phytophaga |
The diversification of species within the Phytophaga is thought to be associated with the speciation within the Angiosperms. The plant-feeding habit may have been a shift from microfungal, spore-feeding (on strobili and cycads) and saprotrophic habits.[3] With nearly 125,000 described species they are the second largest phytophagous lineage of insects after the order Lepidoptera.[4]
References
- Zhang, Shao-Qian; Che, Li-Heng; Li, Yun; Dan Liang; Pang, Hong; Ślipiński, Adam; Zhang, Peng (2018). "Evolutionary history of Coleoptera revealed by extensive sampling of genes and species". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 205. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9..205Z. doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02644-4. PMC 5768713. PMID 29335414.
- Marvaldi, Adriana E.; Duckett, Catherine N.; Kjer, Karl M.; Gillespie, Joseph J. (2009). "Structural alignment of 18S and 28S rDNA sequences provides insights into phylogeny of Phytophaga (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea and Chrysomeloidea)". Zoologica Scripta. 38: 63–77. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2008.00360.x. S2CID 84345520.
- Farrell, B. D. (1998-07-24). ""Inordinate Fondness" Explained: Why Are There So Many Beetles?". Science. 281 (5376): 555–559. doi:10.1126/science.281.5376.555. PMID 9677197.
- Haddad, Stephanie; McKenna, Duane D. (2016). "Phylogeny and evolution of the superfamily Chrysomeloidea (Coleoptera: Cucujiformia)". Systematic Entomology. 41 (4): 697–716. doi:10.1111/syen.12179. S2CID 87055542.