The Synetinae are a small subfamily within the

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 ...

family (Chrysomelidae). They are found entirely within the

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical region ...

, mainly in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

but also appearing in parts of

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 ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. The subfamily contains only two genera, '' Syneta'' and '' Thricolema'', with a total of 12 described species. The group is sometimes treated as a tribe of

Eumolpinae The Eumolpinae are a subfamily of the leaf beetles, or Chrysomelidae. It is one of the largest subfamilies of leaf beetles, including more than 500 genera and 7000 species. They are oval, and convex in form, and measure up to 10 mm in size. ...

, where they are known as Synetini.

Classification

Historically, the genera ''Syneta'' and ''Thricolema'' were placed within the Orsodacnidae, which was formerly considered a subfamily within the Chrysomelidae. The family-group name was first proposed as "Synetae" in 1883 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,

and

George Henry Horn George Henry Horn (April 7, 1840 – November 24, 1897) was a U.S. entomologist who specialized in the study of beetles. Born in Philadelphia, Horn attended the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a degree in medicine in 1861 ...

, though it is often attributed instead to

J. Gordon Edwards James Gordon Edwards (June 24, 1867 – December 31, 1925) was a Canadian-born film director, producer, and writer who began his career as a stage (theatre), stage actor and stage director. Biography James Gordon Edwards was born in Montreal ...

(1953) who classified Orsodacnidae as a family and established Synetinae as a subfamily (though he believed that they differed enough to be considered a separate family, Synetidae). The Synetinae were later recognised as a subfamily within Chrysomelidae. In a 1995 cladistic analysis of the leaf beetle subfamilies, Australian entomologist Chris A.M. Reid treated the Synetinae as a tribe (Synetini) within the subfamily Eumolpinae, based on the similarities of the larvae of ''Syneta'' with those in the Eumolpinae. However, the inclusion of ''Syneta'' in the Eumolpinae was disputed by other leaf beetle workers, who argued that the morphological data does not support their inclusion and that the similarities in larval characters are superficial, and that therefore Synetinae should be retained as a separate subfamily. The exact relationship of Synetinae with the other leaf beetle subfamilies is still unclear.

References

Beetle subfamilies Taxa named by John Lawrence LeConte Taxa named by George Henry Horn {{Chrysomelidae-stub