British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera
British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera |
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= Trichopterygidae; including Cephaloplectidae, Limulodidae.
General appearance. 0.4–1.1 mm long. Body length/maximum body width 1.5–5.6. Elytral length/pronotal length 0.85–3.1. 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 oval to elongate; dorsally flattened, or dorsally more or less convex; not necked; somewhat waisted to conspicuously waisted; neither particularly long- nor short-legged to decidedly short-legged; black, reddish, yellowish, pitchy, etc., and various combinations. Upper surfaces of body glabrous or subglabrous, or non-glabrous; not bristly; with neither scales nor scale-like setae.
Detailed morphology. Eyes strongly protuberant, or not strongly protuberant; without bristles; coarsely facetted. Antennae short to long, but not exceeding the insect’s head to tail length; (8–)11 segmented; hairy (each segment with a whorl of long setae); clubbed. Antennal clubs loosely 3 segmented. Antennal insertions visible from above, or hidden from above; not hidden by lateral extensions of the frons.
Prothorax shorter than wide. Pronotal length/maximum pronotal width 0.5–1.6. Prothorax at its widest not markedly narrower than the adjoining part of the abdomen; with neither produced front corners nor serrated sides. Prothorax without notopleural sutures. Metaventrite without a transverse groove. Hind coxae expanded and plate-like (covering the hind femora). The tarsi without bilobed segments; with a tiny basal segment that is hard to detect, or without ‘hidden’ segments. Mid-leg tarsi 3-segmented; trimerous, or with fewer than three segments. Claws of the mid-leg tarsi not appendaged. Front tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi; 3-segmented. Hind tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi; 3-segmented. Tarsal claws simple. Elytral length/maximum width across the elytra 0.55–3.5. Elytra meeting along the length of the mid-line; covering most of the abdomen to short, exposing several terminal abdominal tergites; exposing no more than part of the terminal tergite to at least three complete abdominal tergites; truncate (Acrotrichinae), or not truncate (Ptiliinae). Scutellary striole absent. Wings well developed, or absent or much reduced; without veins (characteristic in form, being very narrow and fringed with long setae); fringed with long hairs on the hind margin.
Visible abdominal sternites 6–7; immovably joined 0. Abdominal segment 8 with apparently functional spiracles, or apparently without functional spiracles.
Habitat, ecology. Not predacious (?); mainly(?) mycetophagous (on moulds); in decaying plant material, in rotting wood, under bark, and associated with dung, or on shed fur or feathers (or in ants'nests).
General comments. This family includes the smallest known Coleoptera.
Larvae. Larvae not predacious (?); mainly(?) mycetophagous (on moulds); in decaying plant material, in rotting wood, in or under bark, and in dung, or in shed fur or feathers (or in ants' nests).
Classification. Suborder Polyphaga; Superfamily Staphilinoidea.
British representation. Genera 18; 90 species.
Illustrations. • Ptenidium pusillum: Rye & Fowler XVI2).
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’.
