Chrysomelidae

Leaf beetles, scientificly known by their family name Chrysomelidae, form a very diverse group of phytophagous beetles. They are usually found on plant leaves, where they use their sharp mouthparts to eat the plant tissue. Their antennas are generally thin and uniformly shaped and they normally have a rounded to prolonged body shape.

Their exosceleton comes in a variety of shapes. For example, shiny metallic beetles are found in many species of the genus Chrysolina, with some typical species found on herbs like rosemary (C. americana) or sage (C. herbacea). While the elytra of leaf beetles are mostly smooth or slightly ridged, but members of the tribe Hispini from the Cassidinae subfamily have numerous spines on their elytra. Beetles from the other tribe in that subfamily, the so-called tortoise beetles (Cassidini), have a stretched pronotum which like a shield covers the small head under it, allowing the beetles to firmly attach to a leaf with nothing exposed to the surface except for the strong elytra and the pronotum.