| Melyridae Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
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| Anthocomus rufus | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Polyphaga |
| Infraorder: | Cucujiformia |
| Superfamily: | Cleroidea |
| Family: | Melyridae Leach, 1815 |
| Synonyms | |
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Melyridae (common name: soft-winged flower beetles) are a family of beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea.
Most are elongate-oval, soft-bodied beetles 10 mm long or less. Many are brightly patterned in black and brown, yellow, or red. Some melyrids (Malachiinae) have peculiar orange structures along the sides of the abdomen, which may be everted and saclike or withdrawn into the body and inconspicuous. Some melyrids have the two basal antennomeres greatly enlarged. Most adults and larvae are predaceous, but many are common on flowers. The most common North American species belong to the genus Collops (Malachiinae); C. quadrimaculatus is reddish, with two bluish black spots on each elytron. [1]
Four New Guinean species of Choresine (the more abundant C. pulchra , the less abundant C. semiopaca and the two infrequent C. rugiceps and C. sp. A , the latter as yet unnamed) have been found to contain batrachotoxins, which may account for the toxicity of some birds such as the blue-capped ifrit and hooded pitohui which eat them. The hypothesis that Phyllobates frogs in South America obtain batrachotoxins from related genera of the Melyridae (Choresine does not occur there) has not been tested due to the difficulty of field-work in Colombia. [2]
The oldest fossil of the family are Sinomelyris and Juraniscus from the late Middle Jurassic (Callovian) Daohugou bed in Inner Mongolia, China. [3] The oldest member of Dasytinae is Protodasytes from the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) aged Charentese amber of France. [4]
The family Melyridae contains over 100 genera worldwide, with ~520 species in 48 genera in North America, and 16 genera in Europe; the largest diversity is in tropical rainforests.
Various authorities have, at times, treated each of the presently-recognized subfamilies as families, and a few tribes have been accorded family status, as well (e.g., "Attalomimidae"). The family Mauroniscidae was removed from Melyridae in 1995, and Rhadalidae in 2019. [5]
Cleroidea is a small superfamily of beetles containing over 10,000 species. Most of the members of the group are somewhat slender, often with fairly soft, flexible elytra, and typically hairy or scaly.
Zopheridae is a family of beetles belonging to Tenebrionoidea. It has grown considerably in recent years as the members of two other families have been included within its circumscription; these former families are the Monommatidae and the Colydiidae, which are now both included in the Zopheridae as subfamilies or even as tribe of subfamily Zopherinae. Some authors accept up to six subfamilies here, while others merge all except the Colydiinae into the Zopherinae.
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.
Chrysochroinae is a subfamily of beetles in the family Buprestidae: the "jewel beetles".
Aplocnemus is an uncommon genus of beetles native to Europe and the British isles belonging to the family Rhadalidae, and formerly in the Melyridae.
Malachius is a genus of soft-winged flower beetles belonging to the family Melyridae subfamily Malachiinae. Malachius species have been reported from Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and in former Yugoslavia.
The Aleocharinae are one of the largest subfamilies of rove beetles, containing over 12,000 species. Previously subject to large-scale debate whether the subfamily deserved the familial status, it is now considered one of the largest subfamilies of rove beetles.
The Oxytelinae are a subfamily of the Staphylinidae, rove beetles. There are about 20 genera and at least 320 described species in Oxytelinae.
Paederini is a tribe of rove beetles.
Lycinae is a subfamily of net-winged beetles in the family Lycidae.
Malachiini is a large tribe of soft-winged flower beetles in the family Melyridae.
Blaps is a genus of darkling beetles in the family Tenebrionidae. There are more than 30 described species in Blaps, the genus being most commonly found in Eurasia and Australia, with occasional sightings elsewhere in the world.
Edrotini is a tribe of darkling beetles in the subfamily Pimeliinae of the family Tenebrionidae. There are more than 50 genera in Edrotini, found primarily in North America and the Neotropics.