Histeroidea is a superfamily of

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 in the infraorder Staphyliniformia.

Characteristics

Characteristic to Histeroidea are an accessory posterior ridge (locking device) behind the hind margin and presence of medial loop and apical hinge of

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

. 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 truncate with 1 or 2

abdominal The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso ...

segments visible. The abdominal 8th segment is completely invaginated in the 7th segment. Each antenna has 8 (seldom 7) segments preceding a club of fused segments. The ventral body surface is glabrous.Hansen, M
Phylogeny and classification of the staphyliniform beetle families (Coleoptera)
Biologiske Skrifter, Copenhagen, 1997

Ecology

Histeroids in general are

predators Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

. However, Sphaeritidae is believed to only be predatory in the larval stage, with its adults being

saprophagous Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi ( ...

instead. This superfamily occurs in various habitats. The Histeridae alone can be found in dung, carrion, fungi, leaf litter, in symbiosis with other animals (e.g. social insects), under tree bark or in galleries of

wood-boring beetles The term woodboring beetle encompasses many species and families of beetles whose larval or adult forms eat and destroy wood (i.e., are xylophagous). In the woodworking industry, larval stages of some are sometimes referred to as woodworms. The t ...

Systematics

Some authors treat Histeroidea as a single family within the superfamily Hydrophiloidea (Hydrophiloidea ''sensu lato''), as they seem to form a clade. Three extant families are currently recognized: *

Histeridae Histeridae is a family of beetles commonly known as clown beetles or Hister beetles. This very diverse group of beetles contains 3,900 species found worldwide. They can be easily identified by their shortened elytra that leaves two of the seven ...

(3900+ species) * Sphaeritidae (7 species) * Synteliidae (9 species) Sphaeritidae and Synteiidae each contain just a single genus: '' Sphaerites'' and '' Syntelia'', respectively. This makes both families

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

. The oldest fossils of the family are '' Cretohister'' and '' Antigracilus'' from the Early Cretaceous ( Aptian)

Yixian Formation The Yixian Formation (; formerly transcribed as Yihsien Formation) is a geological formation in Jinzhou, Liaoning, People's Republic of China, that spans the late Barremian and early Aptian stages of the Early Cretaceous. It is known for its exq ...

of China, which are more closely related to Histeridae than the other two families.

References

External links

Tree of Life web project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Histeroidea Beetle superfamilies