Revalidation and revision of Ochralea Clark, 1865 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae Galerucinae) from the Oriental Region

摘要

Ochralea was described by Clark in 1865 for a very large Oriental galerucine with elongate basal metatarsomeres. Subsequently, nigh more species were described in this genus. It was synonymised with Monolepta by Weise in the Catalogue to the Galerucinae in 1924, and accepted as such by most subsequent authors. Whilst revising the type species of Monolepta, M. bioculata (Fabricius, 1781), it became clear that Ochralea was a distinct genus. The revalidation and redescription of this genus, containing two valid species, is here proposed. Ochralea nigripes (Olivier, 1808) has one recognised junior synonym and Ochralea nigricornis Clark, 1865, and two new synonyms Ochralea pectoralis Harold, 1880 syn. nov. and Monolepta erythromelas Weise, 1922 syn. nov.This species is abundant and widely distributed in south-east Asia from Bengalia and Bangladesh to southern China, the Philippines and Sulawesi. Ochralea wangkliana (Mohamedsaid, 2005) comb, nov., is only known from a few specimens collected around WangKelian Perils, Malaysia. Redescriptions of the genus and the two species are given, including illustrations of external and genital characters, and a distribution map.