British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera
British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera | |
Unless indicated otherwise, the following attributes are implicit throughout the descriptions, except where the characters concerned are inapplicable.
General appearance. Beetles not terrapin-like in shape, and without flattened and clear margins to both thorax and elytra; not asymmetrically humped and tapered; without ‘warning colouration’; not conglobulating; not clicking and ‘jumping’.
Detailed morphology. Beetles without a rostrum. The head not covered by the thorax. Eyes present; two; not accommodating the antennae in a notch. Antennae not strongly asymmetric; not elbowed; without a much-elongated scape. Antennal scape not swollen. Antennal clubs not lamellate; not comprising two small basal segments and a large terminal one; without a cupule. Antennal segment 8 not smaller than 7 and 9.
Prothorax not hooded with anterior bumps. Metaventrite without a transverse groove. Mid-and hind-legs not as in Gyrinidae. Hind coxae moveable; not expanded and plate-like. The tarsi without ‘hidden’ segments. Hind tarsi not modified for swimming. Elytra present; not individually tapered; meeting along the length of the mid-line; covering most of the abdomen; not iridescent. Wings well developed; distally folded, not rolled; veined; not fringed.
Habitat, ecology. Land-dwellers.
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’.