The Insect of the Week (100) is the genus Leptocentrus (lepto=thin or fine, centrus=central). The name refers to the long, thin spine that extends from the pronotum to the apex of the abdomen. Membracidae, with their ca. 428 genera and ca. 3450 species, is far and away the largest of the three families of treehoppers in the superfamily Membracoidea.

Joseph’s coat of many colours. Among the most beautiful animals in the world, the Chrysididae make use of nature’s broad palette to paint the estimated 3000+ species in the family. No wonder that “jewel wasp” is one of the popular names for this family.

This week’s insect of the week is a species of the family Megaspilidae. It was collected in a Malaise trap set next to the Lukusi River in Kakamega Forest, western Kenya. Together with the Ceraphronidae, Megaspilidae completes the number of extant families in the superfamily Ceraphronoidea.

In response to a request for insects highlighted in this blog to feature groups other than the Hymenoptera, we focus this week on the Coleoptera, in particular the family Bolboceratidae (Mulsant, 1842).

Cremnops is a fairly large genus of about 75 species distributed worldwide. Although the diversity and biology of the genus have been studied in some depth in several regions including the Nearctic, Palearctic and Oriental regions and Australia, precious little is known about Afrotropical Cremnops.