British insects: the families of Coleoptera
British insects: the families of Coleoptera |
|
= Atopidae; including Karumiidae.
Soft-bodied Plant Beetles.
General appearance. 9–11 mm long. Body length/maximum body width 1.85–4.21. Elytral length/pronotal length 2–7.98. Base of prothorax not or scarcely narrower than the combined elytral bases, or distinctly 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 elongate; conspicuously necked to not necked; somewhat waisted; dull beetles, “brownish black, with light brown pubescence”, or “orange brown, completely covered with dense, flattened light yellow hairs”. Upper surfaces of body glabrous or subglabrous, or non-glabrous; not bristly; with neither scales nor scale-like setae, or exhibiting scales or scale-like setae.
Detailed morphology. Inclination of the head slight. Eyes strongly protuberant, or not strongly protuberant; without bristles; finely facetted. Antennae short to about half the insect's head to tail length; 11 segmented; filiform. Antennal insertions visible from above, or hidden from above; not in fossae. Mandibular prosthecae absent. Prothorax shorter than wide. Pronotal length/maximum pronotal width 0.52–0.75. Prothorax at its widest markedly narrower than the adjoining part of the abdomen, or not markedly narrower than the adjoining part of the abdomen; with neither produced front corners nor serrated sides. Prothorax without notopleural sutures. The scutellum elevated. Metaventrite with a transverse groove. Hind coxae posteriorly shaped to receive the retracted femur (transversely excavated). Tarsal segmentation formula 5, 5, 5. The tarsi exhibiting bilobed segments (segments 2 to 4); without ‘hidden’ segments. Front tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi; 5-segmented. Mid-leg tarsi 5-segmented; pentamerous. The claws of the mid-leg tarsi not appendaged. The claws of the mid-leg tarsi simple; without an associated empodium. Hind tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi; 5-segmented. Elytral length/maximum width across the elytra 1.21–3.74. Elytra not individually tapered; exposing no more than part of the terminal tergite (usually), or at least three complete abdominal tergites; dull. Scutellary striole absent. Elytra non-glabrous. Wings well developed. Exposed abdominal sternites 5–6; all articulated and movable, or comprising both fused and movable components; immovably joined when present, 2. Abdominal segment 8 with apparently functional spiracles.
Adult habitat, ecology. In living vegetation (mostly in flowers).
Larvae. The larvae C-shaped like those of scarabs, with rather long 3-segmented antennae and a reduced abdominal segment 10 lying under the large segment 9.
Classification. Suborder Polyphaga; Infraorder Elateriformia; Superfamily Dascilloidea.
Worldwide and British representation. About 80 species worldwide; genera 15. 1 species in Britain; genera in Britain 1; Dascillus. E.g., Dascillus cervinus.
General comments. Adults more elongate than Scirtidae, the thorax with obvious side-margins.
Illustrations. • Dascillus cervinus (bent216). • Dascillus cervinus (details, B. Ent. 216). • Dascillus cervinus: B. Ent. 216, legend+text. • Dascillus cervinus: B. Ent. 216, text cont.. • Dascillus cervinus (with Elateridae and Scirtidae): Fowler 4, 109 (1890). • Fowler 4, 109 (1890): original legend..
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: 2nd January 2012. http://delta-intkey.com’.
