-
Anomala dubia · žiedinis grambuolys
-
Hoplia graminicola · žolinis grambuoliukas
-
Phyllopertha horticola · grikinukas
- shining leaf chafers
- grambuoliukai
- rutelowate, zmianowcowate
Most of the text below is from now defunct site www.ukbeetles.co.uk, where it was published under a CC BY 4.0 License.
Formerly Rutelinae, subfamily of Scarabaeidae.
This is a large and cosmopolitan group of chafers, sometimes referred to as a tribe and second in size to the Melolonthinae (Samouelle, 1819) (about 11000 species), it is a mainly tropical group of about 4200 species in 200 genera and up to 9 tribes (it varies) e.g. the Hopliini (Latreille, 1829), more correctly placed in the Melolonthinae (Leach, 1819), is sometimes included and there are many specimens worldwide waiting to be named. The Neotropical region has about 1350 species, and by comparison the European fauna includes 63 species although many occur only in southern regions and only 2 extend north into Fennoscandia and the UK. Other temperate areas such as Asia are relatively diverse but in comparison with the tropics. Adults are usually very varied but usually brightly coloured and often striking in appearance though in general they lack the horns or other exaggerated outgrowths to the head or pronotum seen in some other groups of chafers. Many species are diurnal and very conspicuous, flying around flowers or larval host material in bright sun and often swarming, while others, especially in tropical regions, are nocturnal and sometimes attracted to light in huge numbers. The adults of some species do not feed at all and some may feed only for a brief while but many feed on nectar, pollen, flower parts, fruits or leaves of both angiosperms and gymnosperms. Eggs are laid in the soil or among decaying vegetation and the larvae of most develop in the soil feeding on roots and organic matter, most feed voraciously and develop quickly, and because they tend to occur in numbers and may be widely polyphagous a few species have spread from their native areas, usually with the transport of plant material, and become serious pests, and some have become agricultural pests in their native regions. Pupation occurs in the soil, usually at some depth and almost always in an earth cocoon constructed by the larva using soil particles and oral secretions. Adults of most species, especially in temperate regions, tend to emerge from the soil in numbers and at fairly specific times and have narrow seasons of occurrence. Species in temperate regions are either univoltine or may take two or more years to complete their life-cycle, some may be univoltine over parts of their range but may take longer where temperature or food is limiting. The Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica (Newman, 1838), is typical of how some species have become pests, it is native to Japan and was unintentionally introduced to the Azores in the 1970s, the first records from mainland Europe was from 2014 when swarms were found near Milan and since that time it has been recorded from many locations, it is now regulated in the European Union and may well find its way to the UK where it could have an impact on commercial horticulture. The first North American record was from 1911 and since then it has spread widely across the eastern states and southern parts of Canada and it is an occasionally serious pest of a range of plants. Adults feed on leaves and stems, often skeletonising leaves and killing growing shoots while larvae feed indiscriminately on a very wide range of root at depth in the soil; adults will feed on the foliage of more than 300 hosts in 79 plant families and will also consume fruit while it is developing on the plants. Control is difficult because larvae may go undetected until the damage is severe, they are also capable of moving through the soil to find fresh host material, and adults may swarm and disperse suddenly, they fly well and have been detected at 2.75 miles from their origin. After emerging and a period of feeding, adults move up into tree foliage to continue feeding and to mate and disperse, females then return to the soil to oviposit and so their presence is not always obvious; young larvae feed among roots but when larger, in the autumn, they burrow deeper to overwinter and generally go undetected.
Notwithstanding the very diverse appearance of the adults due to the metallic and often brilliant colouration, members of the subfamily are otherwise fairly uniform and differences between the tribes tend to be in the detail rather than in gross morphology and superficially they resemble many members of the Melolonthinae and Cetoniinae.