British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera
British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera |
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Including Anaspiidae.
General appearance. 2–4.5 mm long. Body length/maximum body width 2–3.6. Elytral length/pronotal length 2.6–6.4. 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 elongate-oval to elongate; conspicuously necked; not waisted to somewhat waisted; conspicuously long-legged; yellowish or yellowish brown, with darker head and antennae (Scraptia), or (Anaspis) variable in colour but with black antennae having a yellow basal segment. Upper surfaces of body non-glabrous; not bristly; with neither scales nor scale-like setae.
Detailed morphology. Beetles not prognathous. Eyes strongly protuberant, or not strongly protuberant; not accommodating the antennae in a notch; bristly, or without bristles. Antennae short to long, but not exceeding the insect’s head to tail length. Antennal scape not swollen. Antennae filiform. Antennal insertions visible from above.
Pronotal length/maximum pronotal width 0.48–1.07. Prothorax without notopleural sutures. Metaventrite without a transverse groove. Fore coxal cavites closed behind. The tarsi exhibiting bilobed segments; with a tiny penultimate segment hidden by lobing of the one proximal to it, or without ‘hidden’ segments (basal segments very long, penultimate segments very short and lobed beneath). Mid-leg tarsi 5-segmented; pentamerous, or pseudotetramerous. Claws of the mid-leg tarsi not appendaged. Front tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi; 5-segmented. Hind tarsi with one segment fewer than the mid-tarsi; 4-segmented. Tarsal claws simple, or one-toothed or bifid (very small). Elytral length/maximum width across the elytra 1.55–3.1. Elytra covering most of the abdomen; exposing no more than part of the terminal tergite to at least one but fewer than three complete abdominal tergites; not truncate. Scutellary striole absent. Elytra non-glabrous (uniformly hairy); with epipleura. Elytral epipleura reaching to the tips of the elytra. Wings well developed, or absent or much reduced.
Visible abdominal sternites 5; immovably joined 0. Abdominal segment 8 apparently without functional spiracles.
Habitat, ecology. Not predacious (?); in living vegetation (on spring flowers (Anaspis)), or in rotting wood (Scraptia).
Larvae. Larvae not predacious (?); in rotting wood.
Classification. Suborder Polyphaga; Superfamily Cucujoidea.
British representation. Genera 2; 17 species.
Illustrations. • 12 Anaspis species (from Joy).
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’.
