Aulacothorax

Aulacothorax is a genus of leaf beetles in the family Chrysomelidae. There are currently 51 described species in Aulacothorax found worldwide, 40 of which are found in the Indomalayan realm.^[1][2] Historically considered a problematic member of the tribe Alticini (the flea beetles), the genus is now classified in its own tribe, Serraticollini.

Aulacothorax
Aulacothorax copalinus, United States
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Suborder:	Polyphaga
Infraorder:	Cucujiformia
Superfamily:	Chrysomeloidea
Family:	Chrysomelidae
Subfamily:	Galerucinae
Tribe:	Serraticollini White, 1942
Genus:	Aulacothorax Boheman, 1858
Type species
Aulacothorax exilis Boheman, 1858
Synonyms
Orthaltica Crotch, 1873 Leptotrix Horn, 1889 Micrantipha Blackburn, 1896 Livolia Jacoby, 1903 Leptotrihaltica Heikertinger, 1925 Micrepitrix Laboissiere, 1933 Serraticollis White, 1942 Epithrella Medvedev, 1993 Livoliella Medvedev, 1997

History of research

The genus was originally created in 1858 for a single species described from Tahiti, Aulacothorax exilis, which was placed in Scydmaenidae (now considered a subfamily of Staphylinidae). Recently, the holotype of this species was rediscovered in the collections of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and it was found to belong to the genus Orthaltica. Aulacothorax is the earliest available name for the genus, so the genus Orthaltica was formally placed in synonymy with it in 2017.^[3]

Historically, the genus Aulacothorax (or Orthaltica) was classified as a member of the subfamily Alticinae, later re-ranked as a tribe (Alticini) of the subfamily Galerucinae, based on the presence of enlarged femora in the hind legs. Later studies determined that these enlarged femora lack the metafemoral spring, an internal structure found in the hind leg femora of flea beetles that allows them to jump,^[4] and members of Aulacothorax are incapable of jumping.^[1] A phylogenetic study by Douglas et al. (2023) suggested that Aulacothorax should be separated from Alticini and classified within its own tribe, Serraticollini.^[1]

Selected species

• Aulacothorax arabicus (Medvedev, 1997)
• Aulacothorax australis (Konstantinov, 1995)
• Aulacothorax bakeri (Konstantinov, 1995)
• Aulacothorax borneoensis (Konstantinov, 1995)
• Aulacothorax chibi (Takizawa, 2017)
• Aulacothorax coomani (Laboissiere, 1933)
• Aulacothorax copalinus (Fabricius, 1801)
• Aulacothorax exilis Boheman, 1858
• Aulacothorax kirejtshuki (Konstantinov, 1995)
• Aulacothorax konstantinovi (Takizawa, 2017)
• Aulacothorax melinus (Horn, 1889) (poison ivy leaf beetle)
• Aulacothorax mindanaoensis (Konstantinov, 1995)
• Aulacothorax minutiusculus (Csiki, 1939)
• Aulacothorax okinawanus (Gressitt and Kimoto, 1966)
• Aulacothorax orientalis (Konstantinov, 1995)
• Aulacothorax pahangi (Konstantinov, 1995)
• Aulacothorax parkeri (B. White, 1942)
• Aulacothorax rangoonensis (Konstantinov, 1995)
• Aulacothorax rata (Takizawa, 2017)
• Aulacothorax recticollis (J. L. LeConte, 1861)
• Aulacothorax sabahcola (Takizawa, 2017)
• Aulacothorax schereri (Takizawa, 2017)
• Aulacothorax syzygium (Prathapan & Konstantinov, 2013)
• Aulacothorax terminalia (Prathapan & Konstantinov, 2013)
• Aulacothorax tuberculatus (Takizawa, 2017)
• Aulacothorax visayanensis (Konstantinov, 1995)