A NEW GENUS OF FLEA-BEETLES FROM THE 
WEST INDIES* 
By Doris H. Blake 
Arlington, Va. 
In 1868 Suffrian 1 described two species of small flea-beetles 
from Cuba which he placed under his section “h” of Haltica 
with a suggestion that the legs were similar to those in the genus 
Aphthona of Chevrolat (which, incidentally, is not true). In 
the DeJean Catalogue 2 are listed under Podagrica three names 
for one species from Santo Domingo, all nomina nuda, some of 
which names I have seen on old labels on specimens of this group 
in the Bowditch collection. In both cases the genus to which 
these beetles were more or less tentatively assigned was doubt- 
less a matter of convenience, since they do not bear more than 
a superficial resemblance to the other species in either genus. 
In addition to the two species carefully described by Suffrian 
from Cuba, and the ones named in the DeJean Catalogue from 
Santo Domingo, there exists an untold number of species of this 
group scattered on the various islands of the West Indies. 
Since they are all similarly colored, being yellowish or reddish 
with violaceous or blue-green elytra, and are minute beetles 
from 2—4 mm. long, up to the present they have been divided 
simply into two species — a bigger one ( compressa ) and a 
smaller one ( auripennis ) as described by Suffrian. Possibly it 
would be simpler to leave them as such, in the light of what dis- 
section reveals. 
As might be expected, there are certain resemblances to be 
found in the aedeagi of some of these beetles. A similar but 
somewhat different sort of aedeagus appears in some beetles on 
each island. Sometimes there are several very similar ones on 
the same island. This sort of similarity occurs in three groups 
composed of three or four species each. Besides these, there are 
* Published with a grant from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 
Harvard College. 
1 Suffrian, Archiv fiir Naturgesch., vol. 34, 1868, p. 211. 
2 DeJean Catalogue, 1837, p. 418. 
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