Certainly, Carabidae, Curculionidae and Chrysomelidae are the beetle families that are most studied and the most inspiring for scientific papers. Those three families are also among the most numerous and present the most colorful beetles. Publications go from simple articles in the past to sophisticated papers using cladistics, molecular biology and statistics, in pure research or, for leaf-beetles or weevils, in agriculture. Thousands of papers are published each year on Chrysomelidae. Probably the actual described number of Chrysomelidae, estimated last century as 35.000 species, reaches 45.000 and there probably exist 55.000 to 60.000 species around the world. Canopy species are among the least known, true also for minute species living in litter or mosses Coleoptera can easily exceed 1 to 2 million species and, in the past (in the Mesozoic, but mostly in Cenozoic), they must have been much more numerous. Only Curculionidae and perhaps Staphylinidae can surpass the number of Leaf-Beetles. Curculionidae are present everywhere, even in the sub-Antarctic islands and in Greenland, where Chrysomelidae are missing, even if present there during the Pliocene. Still many species of weevils remain to be described, among the endogeous, myrmecophilous, floricolous species. Symposia on Leaf Beetles, originally organized every four years, now perhaps every two years, together with International and European Congresses of Entomology, or independently, generally are published later in books, which tend actually and only very recently to be published electronically. Many international publishers were responsible for those books and we are indebted to many specialists and co-editors. There were also regular annual meetings of chrysomelid specialists in the United States, correlated with the Entomological Society of America meetings, grouping often part of the specialists from the previous symposia, the next one probably coinciding with the International Congress of Entomology in 2016. Annual meetings of chrysomelid workers were also held in Japan each year. One chrysomelid symposium was organized in Patiala, India, with 29 papers in March, 1989. Sporadic chrysomelid symposia are also held with French and Belgian workers in Paris or elsewhere, in Costa Rica, with Wills Flowers, as in 1995, etc. Regular meetings take place each year in Germany together with the meetings (58 actually) of German-speaking coleopterists. Many European chrysomelidologists attend it also. Those German meetings actually are held in Beutelsbach (Fig. (Fig.1),1), on a hill, in a charming country inn, with a big meeting room and all video facilities. There were also meetings on Chrysomelidae in Pretoria, Republic of South Africa, connected with the local Entomological Society, in Milano, Italy, in Uberlandia, in Brazil, in 2005, etc. The Academia Sinica in China has been and is an active centre of leaf beetle research under Shi-xiang Chen (Fig. (Fig.2)2) and his successors. The death of Chen in 1988 was a big loss for the chrysomelidologists, but new generations have taken up the torch. Figure 1. View of the venue of the meetings of the German-speaking coleopterists, Landgut Burg vicinity of Beutelsbach, 24.10.2009, southwest Germany (near Stuttgart, photo: M. Schmitt). Figure 2. Prof. Shi-xiang Chen (5.11.1905 – 25.1.1988), from a booklet of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 1992. So, progress of our knowledge on the Chrysomelidae, on taxonomy, distribution, physiology, biology has been relatively fast the last 30 years. A Newsletter, devoted to leaf beetles, Chrysomela, was founded in 1979 by Terry Seeno and Eric Smith. It is still alive, now entirely in colour, with a new editor, Caroline Chaboo, and that has been also a stimulant for all chrysomelid lovers. The enormous Georg Frey Collection of beetles (originally housed on the Frey estate in Tutzing) is now in Basle Museum, Switzerland. The Frey Chrysomelidae were initiated in Munich by Jan Bechyne, and most of those beetles are authoritatively identified, but unfortunately a general collection, a former UN dream, has never been made assembling all world insect types. Those types are mainly in the primary museums in London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Moscow, Basle, Washington, Honolulu, Canberra, Beijing, Brussels, Tervueren, Tokyo, Pretoria, Maracay, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and several other big or smaller collections. Due to possible damage in the mail, saving collections staff time and to hastened receipt, museums now try to send excellent digital photographs instead of the specimens themselves. On the spot, examination, remains always possible. Jesus Gomez-Zurita for instance visited the National Museum of Prague (with Achard collections) to see the Bechyne Timarcha types in 1997. Which resulted many excellent papers on the genus, its classification, and many molecular biology studies.
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Jan 4, 2021
Richard Cornette 
