PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE FAUNA AND DISTRIBUTION OF CHRYSOMELIDAE IN XINJIANG

The analyses of the fauna and geographical distribution of Chrysomelidae in Xinjiang shows that: 1) there are 404 known species(including 17 subspecies) leaf beetles recorded in Xinjiang,belonging to 82 genera in 11 subfamilies; among them Cryptocephalinae having 87 species (7 subspecies), Chrysomelinae having 97 species (2 subspecies) and Alticinae 71 species; 2) the fauna component shows that the Palearctic species are great in number (390 species, including 17 subspecies) and is about 96.5% of the total number in Xinjiang and that there are only 14 Non-Palearctic species (about 3.5%). Among Palearctic species, there are 156 Centro-Asiatic species (38.6%), 102 Pan-Palearctic species (25.2%) and others are endemic species, Centre-Centro-Asiatic species and Europe-Sibirica species; 3) the distribution of leaf beetles in Xinjiang shows several distinct characteristics: more species distributed in Altay mountain, Yili-Tacheng Basin, Zhunggar Basin, the north of Tianshan Mountain and the western hill counties of Zhunggar, with 111, 159, 151, 122, 70, 77 species respectively; the eastern and northern regions, occupying more than 2/3 of Xinjiang in land, have less species, especially in Kunlun Mountain (less than 10 species); 4) as to faunal component, Altay Mountain with much more “Eruope-Sibirica species (45 species, 40.5% of the total number in the region), and Yili-Tacheng Basin and Zhunggar Basin with much more Centro-Asiatic species (69 species in the former, about 46%; and 52 species in the later, about 34%); 5)we divide the fauna in Xinjiang into 12 geographic regions.