| Ancistronycha | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ancistronycha abdominalis, Blue Soldier Beetle | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Family: | Cantharidae |
| Subfamily: | Cantharinae |
| Tribe: | Cantharini |
| Genus: | Ancistronycha Märkel, 1852 |
Ancistronycha is a genus of soldier beetles in the family Cantharidae. There are about eight described species in Ancistronycha, found in Europe and Northern Asia (excluding China). [1] [2]
These eight species belong to the genus Ancistronycha:
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera, in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 described species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal life-forms; new species are discovered frequently, with estimates suggesting that there are between 0.9 to 2.1 million total species. Found in almost every habitat except the sea and the polar regions, they interact with their ecosystems in several ways: beetles often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are serious agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle, while others such as Coccinellidae eat aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.
Protea cynaroides, also called the king protea, is a flowering plant. It is a distinctive member of Protea, having the largest flower head in the genus. The species is also known as giant protea, honeypot or king sugar bush. It is widely distributed in the southwestern and southern parts of South Africa in the fynbos region.
Passalidae is a family of beetles known variously as "bessbugs", "bess beetles", "betsy beetles" or "horned passalus beetles". Nearly all of the 500-odd species are tropical; species found in North America are notable for their size, ranging from 20–43 mm, for having a single "horn" on the head, and for a form of social behavior unusual among beetles.
The rove beetles are a family (Staphylinidae) of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra that typically leave more than half of their abdominal segments exposed. With roughly 63,000 species in thousands of genera, the group is currently recognized as the largest extant family of organisms. It is an ancient group, with fossilized rove beetles known from the Triassic, 200 million years ago, and possibly even earlier if the genus Leehermania proves to be a member of this family. They are an ecologically and morphologically diverse group of beetles, and commonly encountered in terrestrial ecosystems.
The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than the beetle's body. In various members of the family, however, the antennae are quite short and such species can be difficult to distinguish from related beetle families such as the Chrysomelidae. The scientific name of this beetle family goes back to a figure from Greek mythology: after an argument with nymphs, the shepherd Cerambus was transformed into a large beetle with horns.
Elateridae or click beetles are family of beetles. Other names include elaters, snapping beetles, spring beetles or skipjacks. This family was defined by William Elford Leach (1790–1836) in 1815. They are a cosmopolitan beetle family characterized by the unusual click mechanism they possess. There are a few other families of Elateroidea in which a few members have the same mechanism, but most elaterid subfamilies can click. A spine on the prosternum can be snapped into a corresponding notch on the mesosternum, producing a violent "click" that can bounce the beetle into the air. Clicking is mainly used to avoid predation, although it is also useful when the beetle is on its back and needs to right itself. There are about 9300 known species worldwide, and 965 valid species in North America.
Lutrochidae is a family of water beetles with a single genus Lutrochus sometimes known as "travertine beetles", since in North America they are common in springs and streams depositing travertine.
Myxophaga is the second-smallest suborder of the Coleoptera after Archostemata, consisting of roughly 65 species of small to minute beetles in four families. The members of this suborder are aquatic and semiaquatic, and feed on algae.
Derodontidae is a family of beetles, in its own superfamily, Derodontoidea, sometimes known as the tooth-necked fungus beetles. Beetles of this family are small, between 2 and 6 mm in length, typically with spiny margins on their pronotum that give them their name, though the genus Laricobius lacks these spines. Unusual among beetles, they have two ocelli on the top of their heads.
The rain beetles are a group of beetles found in the far west of North America. They spend most of their lives underground, emerging in response to rain or snow, thus the common name. Formerly classified in the Scarabaeidae, they are currently assigned to their own family Pleocomidae, considered the sister group to all the remaining families of Scarabaeoidea. The family contains a single extant genus, Pleocoma, and two extinct genera, Cretocoma, described in 2002 from Late Cretaceous deposits in Mongolia, and Proteroscarabeus of Late Cretaceous China.
Rhizophora is a genus of tropical mangrove trees, sometimes collectively called true mangroves. The most notable species is the red mangrove but some other species and a few natural hybrids are known. Rhizophora species generally live in intertidal zones which are inundated daily by the ocean. They exhibit a number of adaptations to this environment, including pneutomatophores that elevate the plants above the water and allow them to respire oxygen even while their lower roots are submerged and a cytological molecular "pump" mechanism that allows them to remove excess salts from their cells. The generic name is derived from the Greek words ριζα (rhiza), meaning "root," and φορος (phoros), meaning "bearing," referring to the stilt-roots.
Rhagonycha fulva, the common red soldier beetle, also misleadingly known as the bloodsucker beetle, and popularly known in England as the hogweed bonking beetle is a species of soldier beetle (Cantharidae).
Glaphyridae is a family of beetles, commonly known as bumble bee scarab beetles. There are eight extant genera with about 80 species distributed worldwide and two extinct genera described from the Aptian aged Yixian Formation of China. There are cases of flower-beetle interactions, in the southeast Mediterranean region between red bowl-shaped flowers and Glaphyridae beetles.
Chlaenius is a large and diverse genus of ground beetle. It is native to the Palearctic realm, Afrotropical realm, and Nearctic realm. Worldwide, roughly 1,000 species are currently recognized with the majority of known species occurring in the Oriental and Afrotropical regions. The genus is divided into many subgenera.
Sphindidae is a family of beetles, in the suborder Polyphaga. They are also known as slime mold beetles due to their exclusive feeding on slime molds during adult and larval stages, other aspects of their life history are obscure. Palaeontological discoveries since 2015 have added to the geologic history of Sphindidae, including the discovery of Libanopsis, placed in the extinct subfamily Libanopsinae.
Mattesia is a genus of parasitic alveolates of the phylum Apicomplexa. Species in this genus infect insects.
Cantharini is a tribe of soldier beetles in the family Cantharidae. There are more than 40 genera and over 500 described species in Cantharini.
Malthodes is a genus of soldier beetles in the family Cantharidae. There are at least 120 described species in Malthodes.
Cyclaxyridae are a family of beetles in the superfamily Cucujoidea. The only living genus is Cyclaxyra, with two species endemic to New Zealand. Other species have been named from fossils. They are also known as sooty mould beetles due to the association of Cyclaxyra with sooty mould. The extant species are mycophagous, feeding on spores, conidia, and hyphae.
Media related to Ancistronycha at Wikimedia Commons