Melolontha
Encyclopedia
Melolontha is a genus
of beetle
s in the family
Scarabaeidae
. The Europe
an cockchafer
s belong to this genus.
called the European cockchafer Scarabaeus melolontha. Étienne Louis Geoffroy
used Melolontha as a genus name (1762), but his book has been suppressed by the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature
, and the authority for the name is the later (1775) publication by Johan Christian Fabricius
.
The following is a list of species within the genus Melolontha:
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
s in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Scarabaeidae
Scarabaeidae
The family Scarabaeidae as currently defined consists of over 30,000 species of beetles worldwide. The species in this large family are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family is fairly unstable, with numerous competing theories, and new proposals appearing quite...
. The Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an cockchafer
Cockchafer
The cockchafer is a European beetle of the genus Melolontha, in the family Scarabaeidae....
s belong to this genus.
Taxonomy
LinnaeusCarolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
called the European cockchafer Scarabaeus melolontha. Étienne Louis Geoffroy
Étienne Louis Geoffroy
Étienne Louis Geoffroy was a French entomologist and pharmacist. He was born in Paris and died in Soissons. He followed the binomial nomenclature of Carl von Linné and devoted himself mainly to beetles....
used Melolontha as a genus name (1762), but his book has been suppressed by the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals...
, and the authority for the name is the later (1775) publication by Johan Christian Fabricius
Johan Christian Fabricius
Johan Christian Fabricius was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others...
.
Species
- Melolontha aceris Faldermann, 1835
- Melolontha afflicta Ballion, 1870
- Melolontha albida FrivaldszkyImre FrivaldszkyDr Emerich Frivaldszky von Frivald was a Hungarian botanist and entomologist.-Biography:...
, 1835 - Melolontha anita ReitterEdmund ReitterEdmund Reitter was a Austrian entomologist , writer and a collector.Edmund Reitter was above all well-known as an expert on the beetles of the Palaearctic....
, 1902 - Melolontha argus BurmeisterHermann BurmeisterKarl Hermann Konrad Burmeister was a German zoologist, entomologist, and herpetologist.Burmeister was born in Stralsund and became a professor of Zoology at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg from 1837 to 1861...
1855 - Melolontha bifurcata (Brenske, 1896)
- Melolontha chinensis (GuerinFélix Édouard Guérin-MénevilleFélix Édouard Guérin-Méneville was a French entomologist.Guérin-Méneville changed his surname from Guérin in 1836. He was the author of the illustrated work Iconographie du Règne Animal de G. Cuvier 1829–1844, a complement to the work of Georges Cuvier and Pierre André Latreille, which lacked...
, 1838) - Melolontha ciliciensis Petrovitz
- Melolontha flabellata Sharp, 1876
- Melolontha frater ArrowGilbert John ArrowGilbert John Arrow was an English entomologist.Gilbert was the son of John Garner Arrow of Streatham, London. He initially trained as an architect but took an interest in insects from 1896 during which time he was a Deputy Keeper on the staff of the Natural History Museum in London from 1896 until...
, 1913 – Indonesia - Melolontha fuscotestacea KraatzErnst Gustav KraatzErnst Gustav Kraatz was a German entomologist.Kraatz was born in Berlin on 13 March, 1831 and died in the same city where he was a Professor at the University of Berlin. He was mainly interested in Coleoptera...
, 1887 - Melolontha guttigera Sharp, 1876
- Melolontha hippocastani FabriciusJohan Christian FabriciusJohan Christian Fabricius was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others...
, 1801 – European forest cockchafer - Melolontha incana Motchulsky, 1853
- Melolontha insulana Burmeister, 1939
- Melolontha japonica Burmeister, 1855
- Melolontha kraatzi Reitter 1906
- Melolontha melolontha (Linnaeus, 1758) – common European cockchafer
- Melolontha papposa IlligerJohann Karl Wilhelm IlligerJohann Karl Wilhelm Illiger was a German entomologist and zoologist.Illiger was the son of a merchant in Brunswick. He studied under the entomologist Johann Hellwig, and later worked on the zoological collections of Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg...
, 1803 - Melolontha pectoralis Megerle von MühlfeldJohann Carl Megerle von MühlfeldJohann Carl Megerle von Mühlfeld was a scientist and zoologist who lived from 1765 to 1840.He worked at the Vienna natural history museum, the Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien, until he retired at the end of 1835.....
, 1812 – European large cockchafer - Melolontha rubiginosa
- Melolontha rufocrassa FairmaireLéon FairmaireLéon Marc Herminie Fairmaire was a French entomologist.A specialist in Coleoptera he assembled an immense collection comparable with that of Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean . This is in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle...
, 1889 - Melolontha satsumaenis Nijma & Kinoshita
- Melolontha virescens (Brenske, 1896)