''Microsternus tricolor'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

pleasing fungus beetle ''Ischyrus quadripunctatus'' Erotylidae, or the pleasing fungus beetles, is a family of beetles belonging to Cucujoidea containing over 100 genera. In the present circumscription, it contains 6 tribes (Tritomini, Dacnini, Megalodacnini, Ero ...

in the family

Erotylidae ''Ischyrus quadripunctatus'' Erotylidae, or the pleasing fungus beetles, is a family of beetles belonging to Cucujoidea containing over 100 genera. In the present circumscription, it contains 6 tribes (Tritomini, Dacnini, Megalodacnini, Er ...

. It is endemic to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The species' name comes from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, "tricolor" meaning "three colors".

Description

''Microsternus tricolor'' are 3 to 5 mm long and 1.4 to 2.4 mm wide. It has three colors as the name suggests, those being red, orange/yellow and black. These beetles have a punctured, close

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ea ...

and orange and black bands of

elytra An elytron (; ; , ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometimes alterna ...

Taxonomy and systematics

''Microsternus tricolor'' was discovered by Lewis in 1887.

References

Beetles described in 1887 Fauna of China Fauna of Taiwan Fauna of Russia Fauna of Japan Erotylidae {{erotylidae-stub