''Aphanotus brevicornis'', the North American flour beetle, is a species of

flour beetle Flour beetles are members of the darkling beetle genus, genera ''Tribolium (beetle), Tribolium'' or ''Tenebrio''. They are pests of cereal silos and are widely used as laboratory animals, as they are easy to keep. The flour beetles consume wheat ...

in the family

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 ...

. It is a pest of stored foodstuff, particularly processed grains. This species was originally described as ''Eulabis brevicornis'' by LeConte, later placed in the genus '' Aphanotus'' by Casey, and further moved to '' Tribolium'' by Hinton. However, phylogenetic studies have shown that ''A. brevicornis'' is more closely related to '' Latheticus oryzae'' and '' Gnatocerus cornutus'' than to other ''Tribolium'' species, therefore warranting replacement of this species in its previous, otherwise defunct, genus '' Aphanotus'' .

References

Tenebrioninae Beetles described in 1859 Household pest insects {{Tenebrionidae-stub