Palaestes

Last updated

Palaestes
PalaestesMontage.jpg
Palaestes abruptus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Class:
Order:
Suborder:
Superfamily:
Family:
Genus:
Palaestes

Perty, 1830

Palaestes is a genus of beetles in the family Cucujidae. It contains eight currently recognized species. Like all members of the Cucujidae, adults are greatly dorso-ventrally compressed. All known species of Palaestes are brightly colored red or yellow and black, and the males have curiously modified mandibles that look like ice tongs; female mandibles are not modified. [1] Palaestes shares with the Australian-New Zealand genus Platisus the character of the male genitalia, which lacks a flagellum, lying on its side in the abdomen, versus inverted in Cucujus and Pediacus .

Beetle Order of insects

Beetles are a group of 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 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. The largest of all families, the Curculionidae (weevils) with some 83,000 member species, belongs to this order. 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.

Cucujidae Family of beetles

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 59 species distributed in four genera.

<i>Cucujus</i> Genus of beetles

Cucujus is a genus of beetles in the family Cucujidae, the flat bark beetles. It contains 15 currently recognized species and subspecies.

The biology of Palaestes species is almost entirely unknown, as are the immature stages. They are presumed to be predacious like other cucujids for which the biology is better known. Specimens are uncommon in collections. The genus is confined to Central and South America. [2] Described species are:

Related Research Articles

Myxophaga Suborder of beetles

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.

<i>Macrodontia cervicornis</i> Species of beetle

Macrodontia cervicornis, also known as the Sabertooth Longhorn beetle, is one of the largest beetles, if one allows for the enormous mandibles of the males, from which it derives both of the names in its binomen: Macrodontia means "long tooth", and cervicornis means "deer antler". Measurements of insect length normally exclude legs, jaws, or horns, but if jaws are included, the longest known specimen of M. cervicornis is 17.7 cm; the longest known specimen of Dynastes hercules, a beetle species with enormous horns, is 17.5 cm, and the longest known beetle excluding either jaws or horns is Titanus giganteus, at 16.7 cm.

Nemonychidae Family of beetles

Nemonychidae is a small family of weevils, placed within the primitive weevil group because they have straight rather than elbowed antennae. They are often called pine flower weevils. As in the Anthribidae, the labrum appears as a separate segment to the clypeus, and the maxillary palps are long and projecting. Nemonychidae have all ventrites free, while Anthribidae have ventrites 1-4 connate or partially fused. Nemonychidae lack lateral carinae on the pronotum, while these are usually present, though may be short, in Anthribidae.

Laemophloeidae Family of beetles

Laemophloeidae, "lined flat bark beetles," is a family in the superfamily Cucujoidea characterized by predominantly dorso-ventrally compressed bodies, head and pronotal discs bordered by ridges or grooves, and inverted male genitalia. Size range of adults is 1–5 mm (0.04–0.2 in) in length. Currently, it contains 40 genera and about 450 species, and is represented on all continents except Antarctica; species richness is greatest in the tropics.

Silvanidae family of insects

Silvanidae, "silvan flat bark beetles", is a family of beetles in the superfamily Cucujoidea, consisting of 58 described genera and about 500 described species. The family is represented on all continents except Antarctica, and is most diverse at both the generic and species levels in the Old World tropics.

<i>Deinophloeus</i> Genus of beetles

Deinophloeus is a small genus of beetles in the family Laemophloeidae restricted to the New World, where five species are known to occur from Arizona south to Panama. Members of the genus are rather large for the family, ranging from about 2.5 mm to more than 4 mm in length. Members of the genus are characterized by the absence of a frontoclypeal suture, closed procoxal cavities and, in the male, elongate mandibles, clypeal horns, and modified elytral apices. The immature stages are unknown, and nothing is known about their habits or habitats.

<i>Dysmerus</i> Genus of beetles

Dysmerus is a genus of beetles in the family Laemophloeidae. Restricted to the New World, until recently Dysmerus included only the type species, D. basalis, described from Florida in the late 19th Century. A recent revision resurrected two incorrectly synonymized species and recognized an additional 12 new species, so that the genus currently contains 15 species.

<i>Placonotus</i> Genus of beetles

Placonotus is a genus of beetles in the family Laemophloeidae. There are 40 currently recognized species, known from all continents except Antarctica. Placonotus species are small (~2mm), elongate, flattened beetles, characterized by long filiform antennae, presence of a frontoclypeal suture, open anterior coxal cavities, and broadly rounded intercoxal process of abdominal ventrite III. Males have the 8th abdominal segment modified to form claspers used during mating. Adults and larvae are found under dead bark, where they feed on fungi. Currently recognized species are:

Passandridae family of insects

Passandridae, the "parasitic flat bark beetles," are a family of beetles notable for being one of the very few beetle families with larvae that are, as far as known, exclusively ectoparasitic on the immature stages of other beetles and Hymenoptera.

<i>Pediacus</i> Genus of beetles

Pediacus is the largest genus in the family Cucujidae. It contains 31 currently recognized species. Pediacus adults are relatively small (2.7-7.0mm), flattened brownish beetles with no or very small temples, and short antennae with a distinct club. Male genitalia are inverted and possess a short flagellum.

<i>Gelae</i> genus of insects

Gelae is a genus of round fungus beetles belonging to the family Leiodidae. The beetles are found in different parts of Central and North America. They are small and rounded, feeding on slime moulds. They were originally placed in the genus Agathidium following the discovery of the first species, G. cognatum, in 1878. The taxonomic position was revised with description of new species in 2004 by American entomologists Kelly B. Miller and Quentin D. Wheeler. Upon creation of the new genus, the five new species are Gelae baen, G. belae, G. donut, G. fish, and G. rol.

Geodorcus alsobius, or Moehau stag beetle, is a large flightless species of stag beetle in the family Lucanidae. It is found only on Mt Moehau, the highest mountain in the Moehau Range on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand.

<i>Geodorcus auriculatus</i> species of insect

Geodorcus auriculatus is a large flightless stag beetle that is found in the southern part of the Coromandel Peninsula and on Mount Te Aroha in the Kaimai range.

<i>Geodorcus novaezealandiae</i> species of insect

Geodorcus novaezealandiae is a large flightless species of stag beetle in the family Lucanidae. It is the type species and smallest member of the genus Geodorcus. It is endemic to New Zealand.

Geodorcus servandus is a large flightless species of stag beetle in the family Lucanidae. It was discovered by P.R. Kettle in December 1960 and this holotype specimen is held in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection. It was first described by Beverley Holloway in 2007. Its type location is Mount Tuhua summit, near Lake Kaniere on the West Coast of New Zealand. The name servandus is a Latin word meaning "[something] to be preserved, conserved, looked after".

Eumolpini Tribe of leaf beetles

Eumolpini is a tribe of leaf beetles in the subfamily Eumolpinae.

<i>Loberus</i> Genus of beetles

Loberus is a genus of pleasing fungus beetles in the family Erotylidae. There are about 13 described species in Loberus.

<i>Orthoperus</i> Genus of beetles

Orthoperus is a genus of minute hooded beetles in the family Corylophidae. There are at least 20 described species in Orthoperus.

References

  1. Thomas, M. C., and R.A.B. Leschen. 2010. Cucujidae Latreille, 1802. p. 350-354. In: Leschen, R.A.B., R.G. Beutel, and J.F. Lawrence. Coleoptera, Beetles. Vol. 2: Morphology and Systematics (Elateroidea, Bostrichiformia, Cucujiformia partim). Handbook of Zoology. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin.
  2. Sharp, D. 1899. Cucujidae. Biologia Centrali Americana, Coleoptera 2(1): 449-563.