Flea beetle
| Flea beetles | |
|---|---|
| Phyllotreta vittula with characteristic feeding damage to Brassicaceae leaf | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Infraorder: | Cucujiformia |
| Family: | Chrysomelidae |
| Subfamily: | Galerucinae |
| Tribe: | Alticini Newman, 1834 |
| Genera | |
|
Many, see text | |
The flea beetle is a small, jumping beetle of the leaf beetle family (Chrysomelidae), that makes up the tribe Alticini which is part of the subfamily Galerucinae. Historically the flea beetles were classified as their own subfamily.
Though most tribes of the Galerucinae are suspect of rampant paraphyly in the present delimitation, the Alticini seem to form a good clade.
Traditionally, the Alticini were separated from other Galerucinae by the presence of a metafemoral spring (i.e., jumping hind legs). Recent phylogenetic studies suggest that jumping hind legs evolved multiple times in the Galerucinae, rather than once, and that several genera should be transferred between Alticini and Galerucinae sensu stricto (or Galerucini in some classifications).