British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera
British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera |
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= Cybocephalidae.
General appearance. 1.4–8 mm long. Body length/maximum body width 1.2–5.4. Elytral length/pronotal length 1.38–2.75. 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; terrapin-like in shape, with flattened and clear margins to thorax and elytra, or not terrapin-like in shape, and without flattened and clear margins to both thorax and elytra; dorsally flattened; not necked; not waisted to somewhat waisted; decidedly short-legged; brown or black. Upper surfaces of body glabrous or subglabrous, or non-glabrous; exhibiting stiff, erect, dark bristles, or not bristly; exhibiting scales or scale-like setae, or with neither scales nor scale-like setae.
Detailed morphology. Beetles prognathous, or not prognathous. Inclination of the head slight to very strong. Eyes strongly protuberant, or not strongly protuberant; bristly, or without bristles. Antennae short to longer than the insect's head to tail length; not elbowed; (9–)11 segmented; without a much-elongated scape. Antennal scape swollen. Antennae strongly clubbed. Antennal clubs 3 segmented (transversely). 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 0.35–1.18. 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 exhibiting bilobed segments; with a tiny penultimate segment hidden by lobing of the one proximal to it, or without ‘hidden’ segments. Mid-leg tarsi 4-segmented, or 5-segmented; pentamerous, or pseudotetramerous, or tetramerous. Claws of the mid-leg tarsi not appendaged. Front tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi; 4-segmented, or 5-segmented. Hind tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi; 4-segmented, or 5-segmented. Tarsal claws simple, or one-toothed or bifid; with an empodium between them (this with no more than two setae), or without an associated empodium. Elytral length/maximum width across the elytra 0.68–1.9. Elytra exposing no more than part of the terminal tergite to at least three complete abdominal tergites; strongly truncate. Scutellary striole present, or absent. Elytra with epipleura. Elytral epipleura falling short of the elytral tips. Wings well developed, or absent or much reduced.
Visible abdominal sternites 5; immovably joined 0. Abdominal segment 8 apparently without functional spiracles.
Habitat, ecology. Land-dwellers; predacious and not predacious; when non-predatory, phytophagous (often feeding on pollen or nectar, or feeding on sap of trees), or mycetophagous; in living vegetation (often in or on flowers).
Larvae. Larvae predacious and not predacious; when non-predatory, phytophagous and mycetophagous; in decaying plant material and in fungi.
Classification. Suborder Polyphaga; Superfamily Cucujoidea.
British representation. Genera 18; 96 species. E.g., Cryptarcha undulata (Spotted Strongylus); Glischrochilus quadripunctatus (4 Orange-spotted Ips); Soronia punctatissima; Omostia colon.
Illustrations. • Cryptarcha undulata (Spotted Strongylus: B. Ent. 339). • Cryptarcha undulata (details, B. Ent. 339). • Cryptarcha undulata: B. Ent. 339, legend+text. • Glischrochilus quadripunctatus (4 Orange-spotted Ips: B. Ent. 306). • Omostia colon (Janson 86). • Soronia punctatissima (Rye & Fowler VI5).
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’.
