''Brachypnoea lecontei'' is a species of leaf beetle. It occurs in the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, it is known to feed on Texas live oak ('' Quercus fusiformis''). ''Brachypnoea lecontei'' was first described with the name "''Colaspis humeralis''" by

John Lawrence LeConte John Lawrence LeConte (May 13, 1825 – November 15, 1883) was an American entomologist of the 19th century, responsible for naming and describing approximately half of the insect taxa known in the United States during his lifetime,

in 1858. Before 2003, the species was considered a synonym of '' Brachypnoea puncticollis''. A study of LeConte's type material at the Museum of Comparative Zoology confirmed that ''Colaspis humeralis'' LeConte, 1858 was in fact a valid species in the genus ''Brachypnoea''. Because the name ''Colaspis humeralis'' LeConte, 1858 was also a primary junior homonym of ''Colaspis humeralis'' Latreille, 1833 (now '' Brachypnoea humeralis''), LeConte's species was renamed to "''Brachypnoea lecontei''" in honor of the species' original author.

References

Further reading