''Amphotis marginata'' is a

nitidulid The sap beetles, also known as Nitidulidae, are a family of beetles. They are small (2–6 mm) ovoid, usually dull-coloured beetles, with knobbed antennae. Some have red or yellow spots or bands. They feed mainly on decaying vegetable mat ...

beetle.

Description

The beetles are between 3.8-5.8mm in size.

Symbiotic relationship

Beetles of the species ''Amphotis marginata'' have a

symbiotic relationship Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

with ants, specifically ''

Lasius fuliginosus ''Lasius fuliginosus'', also known as the jet ant or jet black ant, is a species of ant in the subfamily Formicinae. Distribution This species has a wide distribution in Europe and Asia, from Portugal and Ireland in the west, Finland in the nort ...

''. Adults primarily rely on these ants for their nutrition. They are able to get the ants to release the harvested food by mimicking the food-begging signals used between ants on the foraging trails.

Range

Occurrences registered through the sources aggregated by

GBIF The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around the ...

, suggests that ''Amphotis marginata'' exists mainly in Europe. Occurrences have been registered from the south of Scandinavia to the north of Spain.Amphotis marginata (Fabricius, 1781) in GBIF Secretariat (2019). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2020-06-06

Habitat

Due to the symbiotic relationship with ''

'', ''Amphotis marginata'' has a habitat close to the foraging paths of these ants.

References

Nitidulidae {{Beetle-stub