Hair weevil
| Hair weevil | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Mycteridae | ||||||||||||
| Blanchard , 1845 |
The hairy weevils (Mycteridae) are a family of beetles .
features
Adults
The beetles are elongated with a long-oval to narrow parallel-sided body contour and mostly somewhat flattened. They reach a body length of between 3 and 9 millimeters. The body is usually densely haired with fine, somewhat protruding hair bristles. The head has short to moderately long antennae , the distal (outer) limbs of which are enlarged, in some species they are sex-specifically modified in the male, for example combed. The maxillary palps have a hatchet-shaped to knife-shaped end member. The head is usually oval in shape with the temples narrowed behind the eyes. Only in the genus Mycterus is it extended in the shape of a snout or trunk, which the German name refers to. The pronotum is square to heart-shaped, with Mycterus it is bell-shaped from the base to the front. The elytra are mostly narrow and parallel-sided, with some genera laterally enlarged oval. The tarsi of the pairs of legs have different numbers of limbs, five in the front and in the middle, four limbs on the hind legs (tarsi formula 5-5-4), as is typical of the Tenebrionoidea (therefore previously called heteromera). The penultimate tarsal link of all pairs of legs is somewhat widened and densely hairy on the underside.
Larvae
As far as is known, the larvae are elongated, parallel-sided and noticeably flattened; they reach a body length of around 5 to 30 millimeters. With the exception of the head capsule and the ninth tergite, they are weakly sclerotized. The head is protruded forward (prognath), broad and flat, with 2 or 5 larval eyes (stemmata). The antennae are tripartite, the labrum free. The symmetrical mandibles are two- or three-pointed without a cheek (mola) and movable appendage (prostheca). The trunk section has three short, five-limbed pairs of legs, it is narrower than the abdomen. The ninth abdominal segment forms a heavily sclerotized plate with two appendages ( urogomphi ) and usually one to four small teeth or appendages between these at the rear edge. The ninth sternum is cut in a deep U-shape and surrounds the tenth segment.
Occurrence
The family is widespread almost worldwide with the main distribution in subtropical to tropical latitudes. The genus Mycterus has a wide distribution with a focus on the temperate (moderate) latitudes of both hemispheres, only it occurs in Central Europe. You can find flowers at thistles especially on warm, dry slopes .
Ecology and way of life
The way of life, especially of the tropical species, is usually insufficiently known. As far as food intake is known, the adult beetles are flower visitors. The larvae of the Hemipeplinae all seem to be bound to monocot plants , mostly palms . The heavily flattened larvae live here between the not yet opened, young leaf fronds. However, they obviously do not feed on plant matter, but instead eat fungal hyphae that are growing here. The larvae of the Mycterinae and Eurypinae are known from dead wood , where they usually live between wood and bark. Some Eurypinae, such as Hemipeplinae, have been found at the leaf base or between young leaf fronds of palm trees. They are probably also fungus eaters (mycetophagus).
Systematics
The family includes around 160 described species in 30 genera worldwide, but numerous still undescribed species are known. It is divided into three subfamilies:
- Hemipeplinae. 2 genera. Tropics and subtropics, worldwide.
- Mycterinae. Only genus Mycterus , etc. a. with 3 types in Europe and 6 in North America
- Mycterus tibialis sexton, 1850
- Mycterus umbellatarum (Fabricius, 1787)
- Mycterus curculioides (Fabricius, 1781)
- Eurypinae ( syn. Lacconotinae). 26 genera. Tropics and continents of the southern hemisphere, worldwide.
In Europe the family of hairy weevils is only represented by the genus Mycterus and three species, in Central Europe only two species occur.
The Mycteridae belong to the "Salpingidae group" of the superfamily Tenebrionoidea. Previously they were together with the Scheinrüsslern (Salpingidae) into the family of pythidae classified (Pythidae), or they were in a broad family Melandryidae or Dark Beetle, sorted. According to morphological analyzes, its sister group could be the small family Boridae , comprising only 6 species , with the Prostomidae as a common sister group of this clade .
credentials
- ↑ Mycteridae. Fauna Europaea, Version 1.3, April 19, 2007, accessed July 19, 2007 .
literature
- Darren A. Pollock: Family Mycteridae. In: Richard AB Leschen, Rolf G. Beutel, John F. Lawrence (editors): Handbook of Zoology / Handbuch der Zoologie. Arthropoda. Insecta. Coleoptera, Beetles. Volume 2: Morphology and Systematics (Elateroidea, Bostrichiformia, Cucujiformia partim). Walter de Gruyter, 2010. ISBN 978-3-11-091121-3
- Ross H. Arnett Jr., Michael C. Thomas, Paul E. Skelley, J. Howard Frank: American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. CRC Press, 2002. ISBN 978-1-4200-4123-1 . Family 112: Mycteridae.
