Colored beetles

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Colored beetles
Common bee beetle (Trichodes apiarius)

Common bee beetle ( Trichodes apiarius )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Beetle (Coleoptera)
Subordination : Polyphaga
Partial order : Cucujiformia
Superfamily : Cleroidea
Family : Colored beetles
Scientific name
Cleridae
Latreille , 1802
Trichodes alvearius

The colored beetles (Cleridae) are a family of beetles that are distributed around the world with around 3,400 species in 200 genera. The main area of ​​distribution is in the tropics and subtropics. There are almost 70 species in Europe.

features

Beetle

The beetles are 3 to 50 millimeters long. Their body is usually elongated and has a cylindrical cross-section. In some species of the Tillinae and Hydnocerinae the animals are slender and elongated, in some species of the Korynetinae the body is broadly oval, in some Clerinae it is flattened. It is usually clearly hairy, with some species also tufts of hair are formed. But scales are always missing. Most are wing covers (elytra) with regular punctuation , rarely punctuated irregularly in some Korynetinae. The head is not tilted down. The frontoclypeal suture can be formed or absent. The compound eyes are always indented at the front and either flat or protruding from the contour. They are rarely divided into two parts with ommatidia of strikingly different sizes and colors, as is the case with the genus Dieropsis . But they are never completely divided into two completely separate parts. The labrum is broadly oval and mostly indented. The antennae are four to eleven sections. They often have a conspicuous three-part club, but they can also be feathered, sawed, thread-shaped or with widened joints. The mandibles are usually asymmetrical and always have a single, apical tooth. At the maxilla are Galea and lacinia made significantly. The maxillary palps are four-membered.

The pronotum is oblique to elongated. It often has two tubercles and a median furrow that is tapered at the base. The indentations of the hips ( coxes ) are closed to wide open. They are open inside. The pronotum and scutellum are well developed. The deck wings (elytres) have no noticeable grooves. Wings are usually formed, but some species are apter , i. H. the membranous hind wings are completely absent. The front hips are rounded or slightly sloping, the middle hips usually protrude and the rear hips often have a longitudinal furrow in the middle. The thigh rings ( trochanters ) are triangular and elongated. With the exception of two unhooked thorns at the tip, the splints ( tibia ) have no further thorns, or the thorns have receded. All three pairs of legs have five tarsal links .

The abdomen sometimes has five, usually six, visible sternites . The first three have grown together. The ninth segment is very rarely well developed, as in the genus Brachyptevenus . Mostly it is receded needle-shaped and is then called the spiculum. The spiculum on the eighth sternite is missing in the males, but it is developed in the females. The ovipositor is except Baculi (two internal, clasp shaped sclerites) not sclerotized . In some species, such as those of the genus Tenerus, it is the same length as the abdomen.

Larvae

The body of the larvae is quite elongated and has a cylindrical to slightly flattened cross section. The abdomen, in particular, is sparsely hairy, or sparsely or densely covered with short tomentose hair (pubescence), or almost bare. The body is pink to whitish in color. Most of the parts are otherwise not pigmented, only the heavily sclerotized areas such as the head capsule, the sclerite on the notum, the legs and the urogomphi .

The head protrudes from the body contour. The rear edge is slightly sanded. As a rule, there are five point eyes ( stemmata ) on each side in a vertical 2 + 3 arrangement, they can also be regressed. The frontoclypeal suture is missing. The antennae are tripartite and have an area with sensory hairs on the middle link. The mandibles have a single terminal (apical) tooth and they lack the mola (the widened chewing hole), the mola and the tooth are missing, or a mobile appendage is formed from two thorns (lacinia mobilis). The maxillary palps are four -parted , the labial palps are two-parted. The prothorax usually has a single large sclerite at the top, and there are one to three on the abdomen. The meso- and metathorax usually have a pair of sclerites on the back and one or two, faint, pale ones on the abdomen. The legs are five-limbed including the claw-like pretarsus, which carries a single bristle. Nine abdominal segments are visible from above. The tenth segment is not exposed, but is covered by the ninth. The Urogomphi (paired appendages at the end of the abdomen) are usually well developed.

Way of life

Most species of colored beetles are predatory. Both larvae and adults can occur in the same habitat, although their prey may differ. It is known from Callimerus arcufer , for example, that both the larvae and the adults feed on the caterpillars of rams (Zygaenidae). In contrast, the larvae of Thanasimus formicarius feed on the larvae of bark beetles (Scolytinae), whereas the adult beetles feed on the adults of the bark beetle. The larvae of the genus Trichodes develop in the nests of solitary bees and wasps , or presumably also feed on locust eggs . The Australian species Zenithicola crassus specializes in termites . However, there are species that live on flowers and eat their pollen, such as the closely related genera Eleale from Australia and Epiclines and Calendyma from South America. Beetles of the genus Trichodes feed both predatory and pollen.

Most species of beetles hunt on exposed surfaces, or under the bark of tree stumps and in the branches of trees and bushes. But there are also species, such as those of the African genus Dozocolletus , that live on the ground and whose larvae live in the litter. Three species of the genus Necrobia are known to feed on saprophagous . Both the larvae and the adult animals can be found on old bones, oil seeds, but also in other habitats, where they probably eat not only the substrate but also the larvae of flies, bacon beetles and other insects.

The larvae can take a year to develop, but depending on the climatic conditions it can take three or more years. The animals go through three to six larval stages, with most species having five.

Taxonomy and systematics

The family is divided into the following four subfamilies:

  • Tillinae : about 600 species; mainly Ethiopis , Orientalis and Madagascar , but worldwide, with the exception of South America
  • Hydnocerinae : about 600 species; worldwide, with the exception of Europe. Only a few species occur in the Palearctic .
  • Clerinae : about 1500 species; worldwide, with a focus on the tropics, especially in Africa, Asia and Madagascar.
  • Korynetinae : about 700 species; worldwide, with a focus on the tropics of Africa, Asia and Madagascar.

There were two approaches to classifying the beetles. One that divided the family only into the subfamilies Clerinae and Korynetinae, each with several tribes, and the other that differentiated several subfamilies. It has been shown that the subfamily Thaneroclerinae, originally assigned to the spotted beetles, is more closely related to the Chaetosomatidae and Metaxinidae , which is why it is now regarded as a separate family Thanerocleridae . The other subfamilies Epiphloeinae, Tarsosteninae and Enopliinae were synonymized by Kolibáč (1997) with the subfamily Korynetinae , resulting in the above current structure. The Korynetinae differ from the other subfamilies only in that the fourth tarsal link is withdrawn into the third. It seemed to be the sister group of the other three subfamilies. However, the currently discussed approach is a polytomic family tree as follows: Tillinae, Hydnocerinae (Hydnocerini, Lemidiini, Callimerini), Clerinae, Korynetinae.

Species (Europe)

Subfamily Clerinae

Subfamily Korynetinae

Subfamily Tillinae

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cleridae. Fauna Europaea, accessed March 27, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Richard AB Leschen, Rolf G. Beutel, John F. Lawrence: Handbuch der Zoologie - Coleoptera, Beetles, Volume 2: Morphology and Systematics (Elateroidea, Bostrichiformia, Cucujiformia partim) . de Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-019075-5 , p. 257 ff . (English).

literature

  • Richard AB Leschen, Rolf G. Beutel, John F. Lawrence: Handbuch der Zoologie - Coleoptera, Beetles, Volume 2: Morphology and Systematics (Elateroidea, Bostrichiformia, Cucujiformia partim) . de Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-019075-5 (English).

Web links

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