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The sap beetles, also known as Nitidulidae, are a family of beetles.
The Cupedidae are a small family of beetles, notable for the square pattern of "windows" on their elytra, which give the family their common name of reticulated beetles.
The telephone-pole beetle is a beetle native to the eastern United States, and the only living representative of the otherwise extinct family Micromalthidae. They have an unusual life cycle involving asexually reproducing (parthenogenetic) female larvae, as well as non-functional "ghost adults".
The Archostemata are the smallest suborder of beetles, consisting 45 living species in five families. They are an ancient lineage with a number of primitive characteristics. Antennae may be thread-shaped (filiform) or like a string of beads (moniliform). This suborder also contains the only beetles where both sexes are paedogenic, Micromalthus debilis. Modern archostematan beetles are considered rare, but were more diverse during the Mesozoic. The term "Archostemata" is used more broadly by some authors to include both modern archostematans as well as stem-group beetles like "protocoleopterans", which some modern archostematans closely resemble to due to their plesiomorphic morphology. Genetic research suggests that modern archostematans are a monophyletic group. Some genetic studies have recovered archostematans as the sister group of Myxophaga.
The Cucujidae, "flat bark beetles," are a family of distinctively flat beetles found worldwide under the bark of dead trees. The family has received considerable taxonomic attention in recent years and now consists of 70 species distributed in five genera. It was indicated Cucujus species are scavengers, only feeding on pupae and larvae of other insects and on other subcortical beetles such as their own. Since the Cucujidae prey on larvae of potentially tree damaging beetles that spread fungal diseases, they are considered to be beneficial to the health of living trees.
The family Archeocrypticidae is a small group of beetles with no vernacular common name, though recent authors have coined the name cryptic fungus beetles. Adults and larvae seems to be saprophagous and are often found in plant litter. Worldwide, about 10 genera and 50 species are found, most species are pantropical. Enneboeus caseyi has been recorded from the American South, Central America, and Mexico. About 20 species are found in Australia, in the genera Enneboeus,Australenneboeus and Gondwanenneboeus,Archeocrypticus,Falsoplatydema, Nothenneboeus, Sivacrypticus and Wattianus. They are largely absent from the Palearctic and Nearctic regions.
Adinolepis is a genus of beetles in the family Cupedidae containing four species, all endemic to Australia. A fifth species, Adinolepis scalena, was transferred to Ascioplaga in 2009.
Priacma is a genus of beetles in the family Cupedidae. It contains a single extant species, Priacma serrata native to western North America and one fossil species, P. megapuncta from the Cenomanian aged Burmese amber. Species previously assigned to the genus from the Yixian Formation of China have been subsequently placed in the separate genus Apriacma.
Rhipsideigma is a genus of beetles in the family Cupedidae. It contains five species, four of which are endemic to Madagascar, the other being endemic to the northern coast of Tanzania. They vary in length from 13 mm to 20 mm, and are up to 6 mm wide.
Tenomerga is a genus of beetles in the family Cupedidae. This genus has about 17 extant species, which are native to the eastern Palearctic, Nearctic and Oriental regions.
Paracupes is a genus of beetles in the family Cupedidae, the reticulated beetles.
The Ommatidae are a family of beetles in the suborder Archostemata. The Ommatidae are considered the extant beetle family that has most ancestral characteristics. There are only seven extant species, confined to Australia and South America. However, the geographical distribution was much wider during the Mesozoic spanning across Eurasia and Australia, suggesting that they were widespread on Pangea. So far, over 26 extinct genera containing over 170 species of these beetles have been described. Three extant genera have been assigned to this family: Omma,Tetraphalerus and Beutelius. The family is considered to be a subfamily of Cupedidae by some authors, but have been found to be more closely related to Micromalthidae in molecular phylogenies. A close relationship with Micromalthidae is supported by several morphological characters, including those of the mandibles and male genitalia. Due to their rarity, their ecology is obscure, it is likely that their larvae feed on deadwood.
Prionoceridae is a small family of beetles, in the suborder Polyphaga. They form a group within the cleroid beetles and were formerly treated as a subfamily (Prionocerinae) within the family Melyridae. Very little is known of their life history but most species are pollen feeders as adults and occur in large numbers during spring or the host flowering season. Larvae are predatory or feed on decomposing wood.
The Brachypsectridae are a family of beetles commonly known as the Texas beetles. There are only two extant genera, Brachypsectra and Asiopsectra. Brachypsectra has a cosmopolitan distribution, mostly in arid regions, while Asiopsectra is found in Central Asia and the Middle East.
Magnocoleus is an extinct genus of beetles from the Early Cretaceous of China, between 130.0 and 125.45 Mya. The genus contains a single species, Magnocoleus huangjiapuensis, and is the only member of the family Magnocoleidae in the suborder Archostemata. Magnocoleus was first described by Chinese palaeoentomologist Hong Youchong in 1998, based on fossils of isolated elytra from the Qingshila Formation in Huangjiapu, near the Nantianmen village of Zhangjiakou in Hebei. Recent phylogenetic analyses have suggested that Magnocoleus is closely related to or placed within either Cupedidae or Ommatidae.
Byrrhinae is a subfamily of pill beetles in the family Byrrhidae. There are about 25 genera and at least 160 described species in Byrrhinae.
Promecheilidae is a family of beetles in the superfamily Tenebrionoidea. Perimylopidae is considered a synonym. They are found in southern South America and associated archipelagos like South Georgia and the Falklands, New Zealand and Tasmania. Some species are associated tree ferns and moss-covered dead wood, and other forested habitats, while others are associated with peat bogs, grasslands and coastal habitats. They are probably phytophagus, feeding on lichen, moss, and other plant material.
Tasmosalpingus is the only genus in the beetle family Tasmosalpingidae. There are two species in Tasmosalpingus, found in Australia in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales. Adults have been collected using malaise traps, while a possible larval specimen was found under the bark of the podocarp Phyllocladus aspleniifolius. Gut contents indicate that they are mycophagous, feeding on fungal hyphae.
2019 in paleoentomology is a list of new fossil insect taxa that were described during the year 2019, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoentomology that were scheduled to occur during the year.
References
- ↑ Rodríguez-Mirón, G.M.; López-Pérez, S. (2019). "A new reticulated beetle (Coleoptera: Cupedidae) from Mexico with a catalogue of Cupedidae species of the world". Zootaxa . 4567 (1): 147–160. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4567.1.8.
- ↑ Lawrence, J.F.; Escalona, H.E. (2019). "3. Cupedidae Laporte, 1836". In Ślipiński, A.; Lawrence, J.F. (eds.). Australian Beetles Volume 2: Archostemata, Myxophaga, Adephaga, Polyphaga (part). Csiro Publishing. pp. 8–12. ISBN 9780643097315.
- ↑ Hörnschemeyer, T. (2009). "The species-level phylogeny of archostematan beetles-where do Micromalthus debilis and Crowsoniella relicta belong?". Systematic Entomology . 34 (3): 533–558. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3113.2009.00476.x.