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 from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
s with no vernacular common name, though recent authors have coined the name palm and flower beetles. The family Mycteridae is distributed worldwide. There are about 30 genera and 160 species in three subfamilies Mycterinae, Hemipeplinae and Lacconotinae (=Eurypinae). These 3 subfamilies are extremely diverse in appearance and are sometimes difficult to have a present diagnosis of the adults at the family level.
About 20 species are found in Australia, species of three genera are found in North America (''
Mycterus'', ''
Hemipeplus'' and ''
Lacconotus'')
The larvae are generally flattened and typically inhabit the spaces between leaves or the bases of fronds, where they appear to consume fungi.
[Pollock, Darren A.. "11.20. Mycteridae Blanchard, 1845". ''Volume 2 Morphology and Systematics (Elateroidea, Bostrichiformia, Cucujiformia partim)'', edited by Willy Kükenthal, Richard A.B. Leschen, Rolf G. Beutel and John F. Lawrence, Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 2011, pp. 693-699.]
References
Further reading
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External links
Nomen.at - Mycteridae
Tenebrionoidea
Beetle families
{{Tenebrionoidea-stub