The Tenebrionoidea are a very large and diverse

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s. It generally corresponds to the Heteromera of earlier authors.

Taxonomy

Tenebrionoidea contains the following families: *

Aderidae The Aderidae, sometimes called ant-like leaf beetles, are a family of beetles that bear some resemblance to ants. The family consists of about 1,000 species in about 40 genera, of which most are tropical, although overall distribution is worldwid ...

Winkler 1927 (ant-like leaf beetles) *

Anthicidae The Anthicidae are a family of beetles that resemble ants. They are sometimes called ant-like flower beetles or ant-like beetles. The family comprises over 3,500 species in about 100 genera. Description Their heads constrict just in front of ...

Latreille 1819 (ant-like flower beetles) *† Apotomouridae Bao et al. 2018 * Archeocrypticidae Kaszab 1964 *

Boridae The Boridae are a small family of tenebrionoid beetles with no vernacular common name, though recent authors have coined the name conifer bark beetles. The family contains three genera. '' Boros'' is native to North America and northern Eurasia, ...

C. G. Thomson 1859 *

Chalcodryidae The Chalcodryidae are a family of beetles in the superfamily Tenebrionoidea. It contains at least five species in two genera '' Chalcodrya'' and '' Philpottia,'' which are endemic to New Zealand. They are generally found associated with moss or ...

Watt 1974 *

Ciidae The minute tree-fungus beetles, family (biology), family Ciidae, are a sizeable group of beetles which inhabit Polyporales bracket fungi or coarse woody debris. Most numerous in warmer regions, they are nonetheless widespread and a considerable n ...

Leach 1819 (minute tree-fungus beetles) (= Cisidae) *

Melandryidae Melandryidae is a family of beetles in the superfamily Tenebrionoidea. Members of the family are found worldwide, with around 420 species in 60 genera. Larvae and adults are generally associated with rotting wood and wood-decomposing fungi. Ge ...

Leach 1815 (false darkling beetles) *

Meloidae Blister beetles are beetles of the family Meloidae, so called for their defensive secretion of a blistering agent, cantharidin. About 7,500 species are known worldwide. Many are conspicuous and some are aposematically colored, announcing their ...

Gyllenhal 1810 (

blister beetle Blister beetles are beetles of the family Meloidae, so called for their defensive secretion of a blistering agent, cantharidin. About 7,500 species are known worldwide. Many are conspicuous and some are aposematically colored, announcing their ...

s) *

Mordellidae The Mordellidae are a family of beetles commonly known as tumbling flower beetles for the typical irregular movements they make when escaping predators, or as pintail beetles due to their abdominal tip which aids them in performing these tumbling ...

Latreille 1802 ( tumbling flower beetles) *

Mycetophagidae The Mycetophagidae or hairy fungus beetles are a family of beetles in the superfamily Tenebrionoidea. The different species are between 1.0 and 6.5 mm in length. The larvae and adults live in decaying leaf litter, fungi, and under bark. Mos ...

Leach 1815 ( hairy fungus beetles) *

Mycteridae The family Mycteridae is a small group of tenebrionoid beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them f ...

Blanchard 1845 *

Oedemeridae The family Oedemeridae is a cosmopolitan group of beetles commonly known as false blister beetles, though some recent authors have coined the name pollen-feeding beetles. There are some 100 genera and 1,500 species in the family, mostly associate ...

Latreille 1810 ( false blister beetles) *

Promecheilidae Promecheilidae is a family of beetles in the superfamily Tenebrionoidea. They were formerly included in a family called Perimylopidae. They are found in southern South America and associated archipelagos like South Georgia and the Falklands, Ne ...

Lacordaire, 1859 *

Prostomidae Prostomidae is a family of beetles with no vernacular common name, though recent authors have coined the name jugular-horned beetles. They are often found in dead wood. The family consist of two extant genera with about 20 species. '' Prostomis a ...

C. G. Thomson 1859 *

Pterogeniidae Pterogeniidae is a family of beetles belonging to the supefamily Tenebrionoidea. They are found in South Asia, Southeast Asia, China, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Adults and larvae have been found associated with the fruiting bodies of pol ...

Crowson 1953 * Pyrochroidae Latreille 1807 ( fire-colored beetles, etc.) *

Pythidae The family Pythidae is a small group of tenebrionoid beetles with no vernacular common name, though recent authors have coined the name dead log bark beetles. There are seven genera, which are largely native to the mid-high latitude regions of t ...

Solier 1834 *

Ripiphoridae Ripiphoridae (formerly spelled Rhipiphoridae) is a cosmopolitan family of some 450 described species of beetles sometimes called "wedge-shaped beetles". Ripiphoridae are unusual among beetle families in that many species are hypermetamorphic pa ...

Gemminger and Harold 1870 ( wedge-shaped beetles) (= Rhipiphoridae) *

Salpingidae Salpingidae or narrow-waisted bark beetles is a family of beetles in the superfamily Tenebrionoidea. The species are small, about 1.5 – 7 mm in length. The family is globally distributed and consists of about 45 genera and 300 species, w ...

Leach 1815 ( narrow-waisted bark beetles, etc.) * Scraptiidae Mulsant 1856 ( false flower beetles) * Stenotrachelidae C. G. Thomson 1859 (false long-horned beetles) (= Cephaloidae) * Synchroidae Lacordaire 1859 *

Tenebrionidae Darkling beetle is the common name for members of the beetle family Tenebrionidae. The number of species in the Tenebrionidae is estimated at more than 20,000 and the family is cosmopolitan in distribution. Taxonomy ''Tenebrio'' is the Latin gen ...

Latreille 1802 (

darkling beetle Darkling beetle is the common name for members of the beetle family Tenebrionidae. The number of species in the Tenebrionidae is estimated at more than 20,000 and the family is cosmopolitan in distribution. Taxonomy ''Tenebrio'' is the Latin gen ...

s) *

Tetratomidae Tetratomidae is a small family of beetles sometimes called polypore fungus beetles. The family consists of several genera, most of which used to be in the family Melandryidae. Tetratomidae can be found worldwide. Their food consists of fruiti ...

Billberg 1820 *

Trictenotomidae The Trictenotomidae are a small family of beetles in the superfamily Tenebrionoidea, containing fifteen species in two genera. Most species are found in the Oriental realm where they live in montane forest habitats. The family is considered, bas ...

Blanchard 1845 * Ulodidae Pascoe 1869 *

Zopheridae The Zopheridae family of beetles has grown considerably in recent years as the members of two other families have been included within its circumscription; these former families are the Monommatidae and the Colydiidae, which are now both incl ...

Solier 1834 ( ironclad beetles,

cylindrical bark beetles Colydiinae is a subfamily of beetles, commonly known as cylindrical bark beetles. They have been treated historically as a family Colydiidae, but have been moved into the Zopheridae, where they constitute the bulk of the diversity of the newly e ...

, etc.) The largest family by far is Tenebrionidae, with (as of 2014) approximately 20,000 species and almost two-thirds of the species richness of the superfamily.

Morphology

The Tenebrionoidea show a range of different morphologies. However, one characteristic of most adults is having 5 tarsomeres on the fore- and midlegs, and 4 tarsomeres on the hindleg (tarsal formula 5-5-4). Occasionally, males have tarsal formula reduced to 4-4-4, 3-3-3 or 3-4-4. Larval Tenebrionoidea can be distinguished by various features of the head: a posteriorly diverging gula with well developed gular ridges, posterior tentorial arms being shifted anteriorly, asymmetric mandibles, the M. craniocardinalis vestigial or absent, and the M. tentoriopharyngalis posterior subdivided into several bundles. The body is usually sub-parallel and slightly flattened, but other shapes have evolved to suit different needs, such as cylindrical for boring larvae, strongly flattened for larvae living under bark, and c-shaped and grub-like for larvae with specialised developmental strategies (e.g. post-

triungulin A planidium is a specialized form of insect larva seen in the first-instar of a few families of insects that have parasitoidal ways of life. They are usually flattened, highly sclerotized (hardened), and quite mobile. The function of the plani ...

larvae of Rhipiphoridae and Meloidae).

Ecology

Many tenebrionoid families are fungus feeders, but there are a wide range of other feeding strategies including feeding on wood or on decaying plant material,

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

-feeding (by many Oedemeridae and Anthicidae), and acting as ectoparasitoids of other insects (Ripiphoridae). A small number of species are predators or feed on living plant tissue. Tenebrionoidea show a particular diversity in arid environments. One adaptation shown by some (e.g. ''

Onymacris unguicularis ''Onymacris unguicularis'', the head-stander beetle, is a species of fog basking beetle that is native to the Namib Desert The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means " ...

'') is the ability to gather water from fog in order to drink.

References

External links

* * Beetle superfamilies Taxa named by Pierre André Latreille {{Tenebrionoidea-stub