{{Short description|Genus of leaf beetles from Africa}} {{Automatic taxobox | taxon = Mecistes | display_parents = 2 | authority = Chapuis, 1874<ref name="Chapuis1874">{{cite contribution|last=Chapuis|first=F.|year=1874|title=Tome dixième. Famille des phytophages|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/9655043|editor-last1=Lacordaire|editor-first1=J.T.|editor-last2=Chapuis|editor-first2=F.|encyclopedia=Histoire naturelle des Insectes. Genera des coléoptères|publisher=Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret|place=Paris|pages=i–iv, 1–455}}</ref> | type_species = ''Mecistes tarsalis'' | type_species_authority = Chapuis, 1874 }}
'''''Mecistes''''' is a genus of leaf beetles in the subfamily Eumolpinae.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mecistes|url=http://www.chrysomelidae.it/afr_Eum/genere_Mecistes.html|website=African Eumolpinae site|access-date=2 July 2018}}</ref> It is distributed in central and eastern Africa, from the Uele region and Kenya to Namibia, Botswana and the Eastern provinces of the Republic of South Africa, and in Saudi Arabia. It closely resembles the Oriental genus ''Apolepis''.<ref name="Zoia2009">{{cite journal|last=Zoia|first=S.|year=2009|title=A revision of the genus ''Mecistes'' (Coleoptera Chrysomelidae)|url=http://www.chrysomelidae.it/Chrysomelidae/pubblicazioni-pdf-scaricabili/63-Zoia2009.pdf|journal=Memorie della Società Entomologica Italiana|volume=88|pages=117–154|doi=10.4081/memorieSEI.2009.117|doi-access=free}}</ref>
==Species== Species include:<ref name="Zoia2009"/> * ''Mecistes audisioi'' <small>Zoia, 2009</small> – South Africa: Transvaal * ''Mecistes chapuisi'' <small>Jacoby, 1900</small><ref name="Jacoby1900">{{cite journal|first=M.|last=Jacoby|year=1900|title=On new genera and species of Phytophagous Coleoptera from South and Central Africa|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35994461|journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London|volume=1900|pages=203–266}}</ref> – DR Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe * ''Mecistes flavipes'' <small>(Gerstaecker, 1855)</small><ref name="Zoia2007a">{{cite journal|first=S.|last=Zoia|year=2007|title=New data on African Eumolpinae from the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)|journal=Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift|volume=54|issue=1|pages=69–74|doi=10.1002/mmnd.200700006}}</ref> – Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana * ''Mecistes grobbelaarae'' <small>Zoia, 2009</small> – South Africa: Transvaal * ''Mecistes lineatus'' <small>(Pic, 1921)</small><ref name="Zoia2007b">{{cite journal|last=Zoia|first=S.|year=2007|title=A revision of the ''Pachnephorus'' from the Afrotropical Region (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)|journal=Fragmenta Entomologica|volume=39|issue=1|pages=1–156|doi=10.13133/2284-4880/128 |doi-access=free}}</ref> – central and northern Tanzania * ''Mecistes seriatus'' <small>Lefèvre, 1885</small><ref name="Lefevre1885">{{cite journal|last=Lefèvre|first=É.|year=1885|title=Eumolpidarum hucusque cognitarum catalogus, sectionum conspectu systematico, generum sicut et specierum nonnullarum novarum descriptionibus adjunctis|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27434526|journal=Mémoires de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège|series=2|volume=11|issue=16|pages=1–172}}</ref> – Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, Eswatini, South Africa * ''Mecistes tarsalis'' <small>Chapuis, 1874</small><ref name="Chapuis1874"/> – DR Congo, Namibia (?), Botswana, South Africa * ''Mecistes thompsoni'' <small>Zoia, 2009</small> – Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa * ''Mecistes ziliolii'' <small>Zoia, 2009</small> – Namibia, Botswana, South Africa * ''Mecistes zimbabweensis'' <small>Zoia, 2009</small> – Zimbabwe
==References== {{Reflist}}
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Category:Eumolpinae Category:Chrysomelidae genera Category:Taxa named by Félicien Chapuis Category:Beetles of Africa Category:Beetles of Asia
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