British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera
British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera |
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= Anisotomidae, Liodidae; including Camiaridae, Catopidae, Cholevidae, Colonidae, Leptodiridae, Sogdidae.
Truffle Beetles.
General appearance. 1.2–7 mm long. Body length/maximum body width 1.2–4.05. Elytral length/pronotal length 1.05–4.2. 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 oval to elongate-oval; not necked; not waisted to somewhat waisted. Upper surfaces of body glabrous or subglabrous, or non-glabrous; exhibiting stiff, erect, dark bristles, or not bristly; with neither scales nor scale-like setae. Beetles rolling into a ball when alarmed (sometimes), or not conglobulating.
Detailed morphology. Inclination of the head slight to strong. Eyes strongly protuberant, or not strongly protuberant; bristly, or without bristles. Ocelli present, or absent; when present, paired. Antennae short to long, but not exceeding the insect’s head to tail length; 3 segmented, or 9–11 segmented; clubbed (the club sometimes elongate). Antennal clubs 5 segmented. Antennal segment 8 within the club, smaller than segments 7 and 9. Antennal insertions visible from above, or hidden from above; not in fossae. Mandibular prosthecae well developed to absent.
Prothorax shorter than wide. Pronotal length/maximum pronotal width 0.35–4.35. Prothorax at its widest not markedly narrower than the adjoining part of the abdomen. Prothorax without notopleural sutures. Metaventrite without a transverse groove. The tarsi without bilobed segments; with a tiny basal segment that is hard to detect, or without ‘hidden’ segments. Mid-leg tarsi 3-segmented, or 4-segmented, or 5-segmented; pentamerous, or tetramerous, or trimerous. Claws of the mid-leg tarsi not appendaged. Front tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi, or with one segment fewer than the mid-tarsi; 3-segmented, or 4-segmented, or 5-segmented. Hind tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi, or with one segment fewer than the mid-tarsi; 3-segmented, or 4-segmented, or 5-segmented. Tarsal claws simple; with an empodium between them (this with no more than two setae). Elytral length/maximum width across the elytra 0.57–2.75. Elytra covering most of the abdomen; exposing no more than part of the terminal tergite to at least three complete abdominal tergites. Scutellary striole absent. Elytra non-glabrous, or glabrous. Wings well developed, or absent or much reduced.
Visible abdominal sternites 4–6; immovably joined 0, or 2. Abdominal segment 8 with apparently functional spiracles, or apparently without functional spiracles.
Habitat, ecology. Not predacious; mycetophagous; in decaying plant material, in rotting wood, associated with fungi, and on shed fur or feathers.
Larvae. Larvae not predacious (?); mycetophagous; in decaying plant material, in rotting wood, in fungi, and in shed fur or feathers.
Classification. Suborder Polyphaga; Superfamily Staphilinoidea.
British representation. Genera 20; 92 species. E.g., Catops morio (Dissembling Catops); Leiodes cinnamomea (Truffle Beetle).
Illustrations. • Catops morio (Dissembling Catops: B. Ent. 566). • Leiodes cinnamomea (Truffle-beetle: B. Ent. 251). • Leiodes cinnamomea (details, B. Ent. 251). • Leiodes cinnamomea: B. Ent. 251, legend+text.
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’.
