Chalepus walshii subsp. walshii
Creators: name: Eiseman, Charles S.
name: Feldman, Tracy S.
name: Palmer, Michael W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Chrysomelidae
Chalepus
Chalepus walshii
Chalepus walshii walshii (crotch)

description: Chalepus walshii walshii (Crotch)
(Figs. 9, 46–49, 133)
Reared specimens. MASSACHUSETTS: Franklin Co., Northfield, Old Wendell Rd., 42.633513, -72.420027, 13.vii.2017, em. 24.vii–3.viii.2017, C.S. Eiseman, ex Elymus repens, # CSE4010 (7 adults, ZFMK); 42.647156, -72.424852, 16.vii.2019, em. 24–27.vii.2019, C.S. Eiseman, ex Dactylis glomerata, # CSE5724 (2 adults, MLBM); 42.646820, -72.424839, 18.vii.2019, extracted (dead) 3.viii.2019, C.S. Eiseman, ex Phalaris arundinacea, # CSE5750 (1 adult, MLBM).
Collected specimen. MASSACHUSETTS: Worcester Co., Royalston, 42.678974, -72.167291, 7.vi.2017, C.S. Eiseman, on Calamagrostis canadensis, # CSE3802 (1 adult, ZFMK).
Photographed mine. MASSACHUSETTS: Franklin Co., Northfield, 276 Old Wendell Rd., 13.ix.2016 (empty pupa), C.S. Eiseman, Bromus inermis (iNat 203126260).
Hosts. Poaceae: * Bromus inermis Leyss., Calamagrostis canadensis (Michx.) P. Beauv., * Dactylis glomerata L., Elymus hystrix L., E. *repens (L.) Gould, E. villosus Muhl. ex Willd., E. virginicus L., * Phalaris arundinacea L. (Ford & Cavey 1985; Eiseman 2015).
Biology. The oviposition habits, leaf mines, and characteristic adult feeding sign were described and illustrated by Eiseman (2014, 2015). The abandoned leaf mine and associated adult feeding sign on Bromus inermis were entirely consistent with the previous accounts involving Calamagrostis and Elymus, and with the mines on Dactylis and Phalaris from which adults were reared at the same site in the present study (Figs. 46–49). The egg (Fig. 9) was deposited on the upper leaf surface, 7 mm from the apex; the mine was full-depth and without frass, occupying the full width of the leaf from for the apical 9 cm, and with a total length of 17.5 cm. Although all other observations have involved completed mines, the mines on E. repens were collected when the larvae were still feeding. They fed belly-up, and while the puffy mines were pure whitish below, there was green flecking on the upper leaf surface. Frass was expelled from the leaf margins, as with C. bicolor and as Eiseman (2015) assumed to be the case with C. walshii but had not observed.
Notes. We found a single vacated Chalepus leaf mine on Dichanthelium acuminatum (Sw.) Gould & C.A.Clark on 20 July 2019 at East Barndoor Hill, Granby, Hartford Co., Connecticut (iNat 203126914). The egg was on the upper leaf surface, suggesting it was a mine of C. walshii rather than the Dichanthelium specialist C. bicolor, but we are hesitant to accept this as a larval host record for C. walshii until it can be confirmed by the rearing of adults. Also see Notes regarding DNA barcodes under C. bicolor and C. walshii sayi.
description: Published as part of Eiseman, Charles S., Feldman, Tracy S. & Palmer, Michael W., 2024, New larval host records, parasitoid records, and DNA barcoding data for North American leaf-mining leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomeloidea), pp. 1-60 in Zootaxa 5549 (1) on pages 17-18, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5549.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14387856