British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera
British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera |
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~Staphylinidae.
General appearance. 1.7–6 mm long. Body length/maximum body width 1.6–2.15. Elytral length/pronotal length 1.4–1.95. 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. Beetles oval to elongate-oval (‘pointed-oval’); stoutly dorsally strongly convex and cylindric; not necked; not waisted to somewhat waisted. Upper surfaces of body glabrous or subglabrous; not bristly; with neither scales nor scale-like setae.
Detailed morphology. Eyes not strongly protuberant; without bristles; finely facetted. Antennae short; 11 segmented; filiform to clubbed (i.e., to weakly clubbed). Antennal clubs 5 segmented. Antennal segment 8 not smaller than 7 and 9. Antennal insertions visible from above, or hidden from above. Mandibular prosthecae well developed.
Prothorax shorter than wide. Pronotal length/maximum pronotal width 0.55–0.85. 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. Elytral length/maximum width across the elytra 0.86–1.28. 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 one but fewer than three complete abdominal tergites (exposing the conical, pointed abdominal tip, but longer than in Staphylinidae); somewhat truncate; glossy. Scutellary striole absent. Elytra glabrous. Wings well developed.
Visible abdominal sternites 6 (first as long as 2–4 together); immovably joined 0. Abdominal segment 8 with apparently functional spiracles, or apparently without functional spiracles.
Habitat, ecology. Land-dwellers; not predacious (?); mycetophagous; in decaying plant material, in rotting wood, under bark, and associated with fungi.
Larvae. Larvae not predacious (?); mycetophagous; in decaying plant material, in rotting wood, in or under bark, and in fungi.
Classification. Suborder Polyphaga; Superfamily Staphilinoidea.
British representation. Genera 3; 5 species. E.g., Scaphidium quadrimaculatum (Orange-spotted Scaphidium).
Illustrations. • Scaphidium quadrimaculatum (B. Ent. 379). • Scaphidium quadrimaculatum (details, B. Ent. 379). • Scaphidium quadrimaculatum: B. Ent. 379, 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’.
