Sphindidae is a family of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

s, in the suborder

Polyphaga Polyphaga is the largest and most diverse suborder of beetles. It comprises 144 families in 16 superfamilies, and displays an enormous variety of specialization and adaptation, with over 350,000 described species, or approximately 90% of the b ...

. They are called slime mold beetles due to their exclusive feeding on

slime molds Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to a polyphyly, polyphyletic assemblage of unrelated eukaryotic organisms in the Stramenopiles, Rhizaria, Discoba, Amoebozoa and Holomycota clades. Most are near-microscopic; those in the Myx ...

during adult and larval stages, other aspects of their life history are obscure. Palaeontological discoveries since 2015 have added to the geologic history of Sphindidae, including the discovery of '' Libanopsis'', placed in the extinct subfamily Libanopsinae.

Genera

Eight living genera are placed in Sphindidae: * '' Aspidiphorus'' Latreille, 1829 * '' Carinisphindus'' McHugh, 1900 * '' Eurysphindus'' LeConte, 1878 * '' Genisphindus'' McHugh, 1993 * '' Odontosphindus'' LeConte, 1878 * '' Protosphindus'' Sen Gupta and Crowson, 1979 * '' Sphindiphorus'' Sen Gupta and Crowson, 1979 * '' Sphindus'' Megerle in Dejean, 1821 (cryptic slime mold beetles) *'' Trematosphindus'' Li & Cai, 2021,

Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. Th ...

, Myanmar, and Taimyr amber, Russia; Late Cretaceous (

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...

) *'' Burmops'' Kirejtshuk et al. 2019 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Additionally the extinct subfamily Libanopsinae contains the genus '' Libanopsis'' encompassing five species from

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

Lebanese amber Lebanese amber is fossilized resin found in Lebanon and its surroundings. It dates back approximately 130-125 million years to the Barremian of the Early Cretaceous. It formed on what was then the northern coast of Gondwana, believed to be a tropic ...

References

External links

Sphindidae
Tree of Life * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1065863 Cucujoidea families