The Brachypsectridae are a family of beetles commonly known as the Texas beetles. There are only two extant

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

, '' Brachypsectra'' and '' Asiopsectra. Brachypsectra'' has a cosmopolitan distribution, mostly in arid regions, while ''Asiopsectra'' is found in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Taxonomy

Brachypsectra cleidecostae adult female (cropped)

The family is somewhat enigmatic since the discovery and description of the first species, ''Brachypsectra fulva''. This was originally included in the family

Dascillidae Dascillidae is a family of beetles within the clade Elateriformia. There are about 100 extant species in 11 genera, which are found worldwide. Dascillidae together with Rhipiceridae form the super family Dascilloidea. Taxonomy The family was na ...

, but was later placed in the new family Brachypsectridae by Horn (1881).BugGuide
/ref> While formerly considered monogeneric, in 2016 a new genus '' Asiopsectra'' was described from specimens found in Iran and Tajikistan. Two extinct genera, '' Vetubrachypsectra'' and '' Hongipsectra'', known from adults, and a larval genus, '' Cretopsectra'' are known from mid

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

(latest

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0.9 M ...

-earliest

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the s ...

~ 100 million years ago)

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. The ...

. A fossil species of ''Brachypsectra,'' ''B. moronei'' is known from

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

aged

Dominican amber Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic derived from resin of the extinct tree ''Hymenaea protera''. Dominican amber differentiates itself from Baltic amber by being nearly always transparent, and it has a higher number of fossil incl ...

, an unnamed larva is known from Eocene aged

Baltic amber The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than 1 ...

Description

Members of this family are small (4–8 mm), flattened, relatively soft-bodied, brown or yellow beetles with large eyes. The

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 ...

are indistinctly striated and the antennae form a club.Review of the Family Brachypsectridae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea)
/ref> The larvae are distinctive being described by

Gordon Floyd Ferris Gordon Floyd Ferris (January 2, 1893, in Bayard, Kansas – May 21, 1958) was an American entomologist who served as professor of biology at Stanford University from 1912 to 1958 and earned a reputation for his teaching. He founded and edited ...

in 1927 and Blair in 1930 as being "entomological enigmas". They were not associated with the adult beetles until 25 years after their discovery by Barber in 1905. They are ovate and flattened and have moderately long, lateral lobes lined with elongated feathery lobules on all the thoracic segments and the first eight abdominal segments. The head and the posterior abdominal segments are relatively small and dark-coloured. The larvae are ambush predators that use their bodies to pin invertebrate prey, on which it then feeds using its sucking mandibles. Larval specimens of the Australian ''Brachypsectra'' species have been found in leaf litter and under bark. The larvae pupate inside a silken coccoon which they construct, with pupation lasting around six weeks. The adults of ''Brachypsectra'' appear to be short-lived relative to the larvae.

Species

Extant species: * '' Brachypsectra'' Le Conte 1874 ** ''

Brachypsectra fulva ''Brachypsectra fulva'' is a species of beetle in the Brachypsectridae family commonly known as the Texas beetle. Distribution ''B. fulva'' occurs in Mexico and in the southern United States in the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New M ...

'' LeConte (type) - North America ** '' Brachypsectra fuscula'' Blair - Singapore ** '' Brachypsectra lampyroides'' Blair - south India ** '' Brachypsectra moronei'' Branham - found fossilised in amber in the Dominican Republic ** '' Brachypsectra vivafosile'' Woodruff - Dominican Republic ** ''Brachypsectra kadlec'' Hájek - Iran ** ''Brachypsectra jaech'' Petrzelkova, Makris & Kundrata - Turkey ** ''Brachypsectra cleidecostae'' Lawrence, Monteith & Reid - Australia * '' Asiopsectra'' Kovalev and Kirejtshuk, 2016 ** ''Asiopsectra luculenta'' Kovalev and Kirejtshuk - Iran ** ''Asiopsectra mirifica'' Kovalev and Kirejtshuk - Tajikistan

References

External links

Tree of Life {{Taxonbar, from=Q729483 Elateroidea Beetle families Taxa named by George Henry Horn