Diversity and host plant utilization of leaf-mining beetles of Chrysomeloidea (Coleoptera) in Japan.

The superfamily Chrysomeloidea (Cerambycidae + Chrysomelidae + Megalopodidae) encompasses a diverse phytophagous beetles, whose larvae exhibit internal or external feeding on leaves, wood, or roots of many plants. Through extensive research on leaf-mining insects in Japan, 64 species of Chrysomeloidea were confirmed to engage in leaf-mining behavior during their larval stages infesting tracheophytes, and comprising 2 Cerambycidae, 9 Megalopodidae, and 53 Chrysomelidae. This study presents an overview of the host plants and mining patterns of these 64 leaf-mining beetle species and describes two new species, Kato, and Kato, The leaf-mining beetles demonstrate a broad host range including Equisetales, Polypodiales, Cycadales, and 23 orders of angiosperms. Particularly notable diversification was observed on Polypodiales (within ), Ranunculaceae ( and ), Celastraceae (), and Oleaceae (). Host specificity greatly varied among the reported 64 beetle species: 29 spp. species-specific; 12 spp. genus-specific; 16 spp. family-specific; 2 spp. order-specific; 5 spp. non-specific even at order level. The five non-specific species (, , , , and ) are associated with multiple plant orders while maintaining specificity to a small number of genera belonging to phylogenetically distant plant families. This pattern, termed as extended host specificity, suggests recent host shifts across plant families without substantial expansion of host ranges.