A new contribution to the cytogenetic knowledge of Alticinae (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)

Seven species of Alticinae, mostly from Spain, have been chromosomally surveyed from male meiotic or mitotic cells. The two Spanish species of Oedionychus, O. cinctus and O. limbatus, have shown a karyotype of 2n=16+X+Y, with a lower number of autosomes than in their congeneric Neotropical species, but sharing with them the giant distance-paired sex-chromosomes. The Uruguayan Macrohaltica transversa has a 11+X+y meioformula, which agrees with that found in four congeneric species and in most ones of the allied genus Altica. The meioformula of Hermaeophaga ruficollis 7+Xy, differs only slightly from that reported in another congeneric species. Moreover those of Longitarsus aeruginosus 11+Xy, L. australis 13+Xy, and Psylliodes obscuroaeneus 15+Xy(p,) are similar to some of those previously published for other species in both genera.