British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera
British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera |
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~Chrysomelidae.
Seed-weevils.
General appearance. 2–5 mm long. Body length/maximum body width 1.45–3.1. Elytral length/pronotal length 1.85–3.7. Base of prothorax not or scarcely narrower than the combined elytral bases. Greatest prothoracic width not narrower or only slightly narrower than the greatest elytral width, or distinctly narrower than greatest elytral width. Beetles oval to elongate-oval; conspicuously necked to not necked; not waisted; usually mottled. Upper surfaces of body non-glabrous; not bristly; with neither scales nor scale-like setae.
Detailed morphology. Inclination of the head slight. Eyes strongly protuberant, or not strongly protuberant; deeply accommodating the antennae in an anterior notch; without bristles. Antennae short to about half the insect's head to tail length; 11 segmented. Antennal scape not swollen. Antennae filiform, or serrate. Antennal insertions visible from above.
Pronotal length/maximum pronotal width 0.55–0.95. Prothorax without notopleural sutures. Metaventrite without a transverse groove. The tarsi exhibiting bilobed segments; with a tiny penultimate segment hidden by lobing of the one proximal to it. Mid-leg tarsi 5-segmented; pseudotetramerous. Claws of the mid-leg tarsi not appendaged. Front tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi; 5-segmented. Hind tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi; 5-segmented. Tarsal claws one-toothed or bifid; without an associated empodium. Elytral length/maximum width across the elytra 0.9–1.9. Elytra covering most of the abdomen; exposing no more than part of the terminal tergite to at least three complete abdominal tergites; truncate. Scutellary striole absent. Elytra non-glabrous (clothed with recumbent hairs). Wings well developed.
Visible abdominal sternites 5; immovably joined 0. Abdominal segment 8 apparently without functional spiracles.
Habitat, ecology. Not predacious; phytophagous (especially associated with legumes); in living vegetation.
Larvae. Larvae not predacious; eating dried plant material or stored plant products (especially on seeds of legumes); in dried plant material and in stored plant products.
Classification. Suborder Polyphaga; Superfamily Chrysomeloidea.
British representation. Genera 5; 13 species.
Illustrations. • Bruchus, Bruchidius.
To view the illustrations with detailed captions, go to the interactive key. This also offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the families of Coleoptera. Version: 9th June 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.
