Taxonomy
- Polyphaga
- Chrysomeloidea
- Chrysomelidae
- Phyllotreta
- Phyllotreta nemorum
Common name
Turnip flea beetle OR large striped flea beetle
Images
Source: Lech Borowiec
Description
Size: 2.4-3.5mm
Basic colour: Yellow and black
Pattern colour: Elytra with sinuate longitudinal yellow band
Number of spots: None
Pronotoum: Black with a weak metallic blue or green sheen.
Leg colour: Yellowish to yellow-brown, femora darkened. Tibiae and tarsi usually entirely yellwoish-brownish unlike the similar P. undulata where these structures are clearly bicolorous.
Confusion species: Phyllotreta undulata
Basic colour: Yellow and black
Pattern colour: Elytra with sinuate longitudinal yellow band
Number of spots: None
Pronotoum: Black with a weak metallic blue or green sheen.
Leg colour: Yellowish to yellow-brown, femora darkened. Tibiae and tarsi usually entirely yellwoish-brownish unlike the similar P. undulata where these structures are clearly bicolorous.
Confusion species: Phyllotreta undulata
Palaearctic; introduced into Australia.
Biology
Status: Widespread but local, mainly England, rare in Ireland.
Habitat: Various
Host plant: Various wild and cultivated Brassicaceae; also sometimes mignonettes (Reseda spp.) and brooklime (Veronica beccabunga)
Overwintering: As adults in grass, and under leaves and bark.
Food: Adults on leaves, larvae are leaf-miners
Other notes: Larvae parasited by the braconid wasp Bracon guttiger and a eulophid wasp Eulophus sp. Adults parasitised by braconid wasps Diospilus morosus and Perilitus aethiops. Adults predated by swifts (Apus apus).
Habitat: Various
Host plant: Various wild and cultivated Brassicaceae; also sometimes mignonettes (Reseda spp.) and brooklime (Veronica beccabunga)
Overwintering: As adults in grass, and under leaves and bark.
Food: Adults on leaves, larvae are leaf-miners
Other notes: Larvae parasited by the braconid wasp Bracon guttiger and a eulophid wasp Eulophus sp. Adults parasitised by braconid wasps Diospilus morosus and Perilitus aethiops. Adults predated by swifts (Apus apus).