Hispines comprise half of the subfamily Cassidinae (sensu lato) in the family Chrysomelidae within the order Coleoptera (Staines 2002a). Until recently, most authors treated the group as a separate subfamily. I continue to use “hispines” in the traditional sense of the genera and species in the former subfamily Hispinae (see Seeno & Wilcox 1982 for a list of genera).
There have been a number of catalogs on hispines. In addition to the country or regional catalogs, there are a number of catalogs dealing with the group on a world wide basis. The first was part of the Gemminger & Harold (1876) catalog of the Coleoptera. The first catalog of just hispines was Donckier (1899). Weise (1911a, 1911b) provided the hispine sections to the Coleopterorum Catalogus and Genera Insectorum. Uhmann (1957b, 1958e, 1964a) compiled the Coleopterorum Catalogus Supplementa.
I have attempted in this catalog to review the original literature when it was obtainable. The survey was exhausting but not exhaustive. There are a number of papers which are not available in the United States or for which I could not obtain a useable citation, these are included as "unavailable literature". I am sure that there are a number of papers dealing with hispines which I have overlooked.
The reference citations are presented by current tribe and then alphabetically by genus and then species. Subspecies are included under the nominate species. I have attempted to include all combinations of a species name which I could locate as well as any misspellings. Type data is listed for each species plus the depository (if known) of the type material. This is followed by a chronological list of articles dealing with the species. Authors who published more than one article are listed by date after the first mention of the author’s name. After each citation I have tried to summarize in one or two words the content of the article. Most of these comments are easily understood but some need additional explanation. A faunal list deals with the species collected from a locality or collecting trip. A museum list covers the holdings of a specific museum. “Noted” refers to the species being merely mentioned in the article.
Distribution data is provided for each species. This is usually the country, though with larger countries, states or provinces are listed in parenthesis. I have attempted to update the names of provinces from the colonial era but in many instances I am not sure what the correct name of an area is.
Food plants, if known, are listed. I have made the effort to obtain the author and family of the plants but they may not be the currently accepted botanical name. If there is no author, I have not be able to find an attribution.
There is also a full bibliography arranged by author.
I would like to thank the staff at the Natural History Library, Smithsonian Institution, for their assistance in verifying and obtaining numerous articles dealing with hispines. Assistance in locating additional articles was provided by D. G. Furth, Smithsonian Institution, L. Roberts and A. S. Konstantinov, USDA Systematic Entomology Laboratory. Also the staff of the Anne Arundel County Public Library, especially the Edgewater Branch, helped to obtain additional articles.
S. L. Staines provided constant encouragement plus proof-read the entire catalog. Without her assistance this project would never have occurred.
