British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera
British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera |
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General appearance. 5–7 mm long. Body length/maximum body width 2.05–4.85. Elytral length/pronotal length 4.25–4.95. 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. Body not noticeably widest either behind the thorax, or at the rear. Beetles elongate; not necked; conspicuously waisted; with male elytra orange-brown, covered in pale hairs. Upper surfaces of body non-glabrous; not bristly; with neither scales nor scale-like setae.
Detailed morphology. Inclination of the head slight to strong. Eyes strongly protuberant, or not strongly protuberant; without bristles; finely facetted. Antennae very short (females), or about half the insect's head to tail length (males); (10–)11 segmented; filiform (moniliform, females), or pectinate (males). Antennal insertions visible from above; not in fossae. Mandibular prosthecae absent.
Pronotal length/maximum pronotal width 0.47–0.68. Prothorax without notopleural sutures. Metaventrite without a transverse groove. The tarsi exhibiting bilobed segments; without ‘hidden’ segments. Mid-leg tarsi 5-segmented; pentamerous. Claws of the mid-leg tarsi not appendaged (but with setae near their bases). 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 simple; without an associated empodium. Elytra present (males), or absent (females). Elytral length/maximum width across the elytra 1.7–2.16. Elytra of males covering most of the abdomen; exposing no more than part of the terminal tergite; truncate. Scutellary striole absent. Elytra non-glabrous. Wings well developed, or absent or much reduced.
Visible abdominal sternites 6–7, or 9; immovably joined 0. Abdominal segment 8 with apparently functional spiracles.
Habitat, ecology. Land-dwellers; predacious (on snails).
General comments. The eyes quite small, and circular, unlike those of Buprestidae.
Classification. Suborder Polyphaga; Superfamily Cantharoidea.
British representation. Genera 1; 1 species. E.g., Drilus flavescens.
Illustrations. • Drilus flavescens (Rye & Fowler eIX3).
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’.
