''Chrysolina fastuosa'', also known as the dead-nettle leaf beetle, is a species of

leaf beetle The insects of the beetle family Chrysomelidae are commonly known as leaf beetles, and include over 37,000 (and probably at least 50,000) species in more than 2,500 genera, making up one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle ...

in the family

Chrysomelidae The insects of the beetle family Chrysomelidae are commonly known as leaf beetles, and include over 37,000 (and probably at least 50,000) species in more than 2,500 genera, making up one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle ...

found in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

and northern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Description

The species has a length ranging from . ''C. fastuosa'' has a gold shine that transitions to a green or violet-blue longitudinal stripe near the shoulder band of the

elytra An elytron (; ; , ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometimes alterna ...

as well as near the suture. Occasionally, specimen of ''C. fastuosa'' may be completely green or black in colour.

Ecology

Adults and larvae of ''C. fastuosa'' feed on various plants in the family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory ...

, including hemp-nettle (''

Galeopsis ''Galeopsis'', commonly called hemp-nettle or hempnettle, is a genus of annual herbaceous plants native to Europe and Asia. Some species are naturalized in North America and New Zealand. The plants are poisonous. Several species are widespread w ...

'') and dead-nettle (''

Lamium ''Lamium'' (dead-nettles) is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, of which it is the type genus. They are all herbaceous plants native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, but several have become very successf ...

''). It is also known from common nettle (''

Urtica dioica ''Urtica dioica'', often known as common nettle, burn nettle, stinging nettle (although not all plants of this species sting) or nettle leaf, or just a nettle or stinger, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae. Ori ...

''), which is in family

Urticaceae The Urticaceae are a family, the nettle family, of flowering plants. The family name comes from the genus ''Urtica''. The Urticaceae include a number of well-known and useful plants, including nettles in the genus ''Urtica'', ramie (''Boehmeri ...

. Adults and larvae graze on leaves, while larvae may also be found in fruiting calyxes. Larvae are parasitised by the

tachinid fly The Tachinidae are a large and variable family of true flies within the insect order Diptera, with more than 8,200 known species and many more to be discovered. Over 1,300 species have been described in North America alone. Insects in this family ...

Macquartia grisea ''Macquartia grisea'' is a European species of fly in the family Tachinidae. Ecology ''Macquartia grisea'' is an endoparasitoid of the leaf beetle ''Chrysolina fastuosa''. Distribution British Isles, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sl ...

''.

Taxonomy

In the genus '' Chrysolina'', ''C. fastuosa'' is classified as the only member of the monotypic

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

''Fastuolina'', proposed by Warchałowski in 1991. Some authors consider the name "''Fastuolina''" to be an

unavailable name In zoological nomenclature, an unavailable name is a name that does not conform to the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and that therefore is not available for use as a valid name for a taxon. Such a name does not fulfil th ...

under the

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the ...

, so the new name ''Fasta'' was proposed for the subgenus by Petitpierre and Alonso-Zarazaga in 2019. In 2023, a phylogenetic study based on DNA extracted from museum specimens found that ''C. fastuosa'' is sister to the genus ''

Oreina ''Oreina'' is a genus of broad-shouldered leaf beetles belonging to the family Chrysomelidae, subfamily Chrysomelinae. Species The genus contains the following species, in seven subgenera: * Subgenus ''Allorina'' ** ''Oreina auricollis'' ** '' ...

''. The authors of the study therefore raised the rank of ''Fasta'' from subgenus to genus, resulting in the

new combination ''Combinatio nova'', abbreviated ''comb. nov.'' (sometimes ''n. comb.''), is Latin for "new combination". It is used in taxonomic biology literature when a new name is introduced based on a pre-existing name. The term should not to be confused wi ...

''Fasta fastuosa'' for the species.

References

External links

* Chrysomelinae Beetles of Asia Beetles of Europe Beetles described in 1763 Taxa named by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli Articles containing video clips {{Chrysomelinae-stub