Wallacea, Pistosia and Neodownesia: three distinct genera and their tribal placement (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae)

Abstract: Wallacea Baly, 1859, Pistosia Weise, 1905 and Neodownesia Gressitt, 1953 are transferred from Gonophorini to Bothryonopini based on absence of setigerous pores on the pronotum, mouthparts situated close to antennal insertions, scutellum on the same plane as the elytra, and morphology of the larva. Pistosia, stat. restit., and Neodownesia, stat. restit., are removed from synonymy of Wallacea based on the structure of mouthparts and antennae. Three species are included in Pistosia: P. maculata Weise, 1905, P. terminalis (Baly, 1869) comb. nov. (from Estigmena Hope, 1840), and P. testacea (Fabricius, 1801); all endemic to Sulawesi and neighbouring small islands. Type localities of all three species are specified and Arecaceae is considered as potential host plant family. Three species are also included in Neodownesia: N. sita (Maulik, 1919) comb. nov., N. mediovittata (Gestro, 1920) stat. restit. & comb. nov., and N. rubra Gressitt, 1953, stat. restit.; the first two are transferred from Wallacea and the last two are removed from synonymy with N. sita based on study of type material. Distribution of Neodownesia species is corrected, N. mediovittata and N. sita are reported as new to Thailand. Keys to genera of Bothryonopini and to species of Pistosia and Neodownesia are also given. Macrispa Baly, 1859 stat. restit. is removed from synonymy of Bothryonopa Guérin-Méneville, 1840 and includes two species: M. ingenua (Gestro, 1904) and M. saundersii (Baly, 1859). Following species were until now cited only in Wallaceana or Pistosia and are here transfered to Wallacea: W. biseriata (Uhmann, 1931) comb. nov., W. costata (Uhmann, 1939) comb. nov., W. costipennis (Uhmann, 1931) comb. nov., W. drescheri (Uhmann, 1935) comb. nov., W. fasciata (Uhmann, 1948) comb. nov., W. impicta (Uhmann, 1931) comb. nov., W. nigra (Chen & Sun, 1964) comb. nov., and W. phoenicia (Maulik, 1930) comb. nov. All taxa of Neodownesia, Pistosia and Wallacea, the latter containing 29 species, are provided with bibliographic catalogue, known distribution and host plants. Years of publication of respective taxonomic papers are corrected based on actual dates of publication.

Key words: Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Cassidinae, Gonophorini, Bothryonopini, Neodownesia, Pistosia, Wallacea, entomology, taxonomy, new combination, new synonymy, Oriental Region