British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera
British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera |
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= Lymexylonidae; including Atractoceridae.
Timber-borers.
General appearance. 7–18 mm long. Body length/maximum body width 4.05–12.2. Elytral length/pronotal length 1.5–5.25. 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 to slender; conspicuously necked to not necked; somewhat waisted. Upper surfaces of body non-glabrous; not bristly; with neither scales nor scale-like setae.
Detailed morphology. Eyes strongly protuberant; without bristles; finely facetted. Antennae short; 11 segmented. Antennal scape not swollen. Antennae filiform (or fusiform), or serrate. Antennal insertions visible from above, or hidden from above. Mandibular prosthecae well developed, or absent.
Prothorax longer than wide. Pronotal length/maximum pronotal width 0.75–1.5. 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; without ‘hidden’ segments. Mid-leg tarsi 5-segmented; pentamerous. 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 simple; with an empodium between them (this sometimes with three or more setae). Elytral length/maximum width across the elytra 1.45–4.67. Elytra individually distinctly tapered to their apices to not individually tapered; not meeting along the full length of the mid-line (at least, narrowly separated towards their tips); fairly short, exposing several terminal abdominal tergites (in Britain); exposing no more than part of the terminal tergite to at least three complete abdominal tergites (the abdominal tip pointed); truncate; soft. Scutellary striole absent. Elytra non-glabrous. Wings well developed.
Visible abdominal sternites 5–7; immovably joined 0. Abdominal segment 8 apparently without functional spiracles.
Habitat, ecology. Not predacious; boring into living wood.
Larvae. Larvae not predacious; mycetophagous (in tunnels bored in the wood of weakened trees); in wood.
Classification. Suborder Polyphaga; Superfamily Lymexyloidea.
British representation. Genera 2; 2 species. E.g., Hylecoetus ermestoides; Lymexylon navale (Windsor Wood-borer).
Illustrations. • Lymexylon navale (Windsor Wood-borer: B. Ent. 382). • Lymexylon navale (details, B. Ent. 382). • Lymexylon navale: B. Ent. 382, legend+text. • Hylecoetus dermestoides (Rye & Fowler IX6).
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: 18th September 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.
