The sap beetles, also known as Nitidulidae, are a family of beetles.
Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically grow very slowly and live very long. Because of their superficial resemblance to palms or ferns, they are sometimes mistaken for them, but they are not closely related to either group. Cycads are gymnosperms (naked-seeded), meaning their unfertilized seeds are open to the air to be directly fertilized by pollination, as contrasted with angiosperms, which have enclosed seeds with more complex fertilization arrangements. Cycads have very specialized pollinators, usually a specific species of beetle. Both male and female cycads bear cones (strobili), somewhat similar to conifer cones.
The insects of the beetle family Chrysomelidae are commonly known as leaf beetles, and include over 37,000 species in more than 2,500 genera, making up one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle families. Numerous subfamilies are recognized, but the precise taxonomy and systematics are likely to change with ongoing research.
The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described.
The Trachypachidae are a family of beetles that generally resemble small ground beetles, but that are distinguished by the large coxae of their rearmost legs. There are only six known extant species in the family, with four species of Trachypachus found in northern Eurasia and northern North America, and two species of Systolosoma in Chile and Argentina. They were much more diverse in the past, with dozens of described species from the Mesozoic.
The Chrysomelinae are a subfamily of leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae), commonly known as broad-bodied leaf beetles or broad-shouldered leaf beetles. It includes some 3,000 species around the world.
The Donaciinae are a subfamily of the leaf beetles, or Chrysomelidae, characterised by distinctly long antennae. They are found in mainly the Northern Hemisphere, with some species found in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Synetinae are a small subfamily within the leaf beetle family (Chrysomelidae). They are found entirely within the Holarctic, mainly in North America but also appearing in parts of Europe and Asia. The subfamily contains only two genera, Syneta and Thricolema, with a total of 12 described species. The group is sometimes treated as a tribe of Eumolpinae, where they are known as Synetini.
Orsodacne is a genus of beetles, the sole member of the subfamily Orsodacninae. It comprises about 10 Holarctic species.
The beetle subfamily Aulacoscelidinae is a small, uncommonly-encountered group presently classified within the family Orsodacnidae, historically placed as a subfamily of Chrysomelidae, or sometimes classified as a separate family Aulacoscelidae. There are only 19 species, mostly Neotropical in distribution, and their larval habits are unknown.
Histeroidea is a superfamily of beetles in the infraorder Staphyliniformia.
Agyrtidae, or primitive carrion beetles, are a small family of beetles belonging to Staphylinoidea. They are found in mostly temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere and in New Zealand.
Piesmatidae is a small family of true bugs, commonly called ash-grey leaf bugs. The Piesmatidae are distributed mostly in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with some occurring in Africa, Australia and South America. A common species found throughout the Americas is Piesma cinereum.
Sphindidae is a family of beetles, in the suborder Polyphaga. They are called 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.
Teredidae is a family of beetles in the superfamily Coccinelloidea, formerly included within the family Bothrideridae. There are around 160 species in 10 genera, found worldwide except South America. Teredids are generally found under bark, in the galleries of wood-boring beetles, or in leaf litter. They are thought to be fungivores. The oldest records of the family are Delteredolaemus from mid-Cretaceous aged Burmese amber from Myanmar and a species of Teredolaemus from Eocene aged Baltic amber.
Phyllotreta undulata, known generally as the small striped flea beetle or turnip flea beetle, is a species of flea beetle in the family Chrysomelidae. It is found in Australia, Europe and Northern Asia, North America, and Oceania.
Eumolpini is a tribe of leaf beetles in the subfamily Eumolpinae. It is the largest tribe in the subfamily, with approximately 170 genera found worldwide. Members of the tribe almost always have a longitudinal median groove on the pygidium, which possibly helps to keep the elytra locked at rest. They also generally have a subglabrous body, as well as appendiculate pretarsal claws.
Janbechynea is a genus of leaf beetles in the family Orsodacnidae. There are at least 12 described species in Janbechynea, found in North America. The genus is named after the Czech entomologist Jan Bechyně.
Cadiz is a genus of leaf beetles in the subfamily Chrysomelinae, found in North America. It contains only one species, Cadiz hardyi, which was described from the Cadiz Dunes in San Bernardino County, California.
Strongylocassis is a genus of tortoise beetles in the family Chrysomelidae, containing a single species, S. atripes.
