British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera
British Insects: the Families of Coleoptera |
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Including Corynetidae, Korynetidae, Thanerocleridae.
Insect-eaters.
General appearance. 6–16 mm long. Body length/maximum body width 1.2–4.87. Elytral length/pronotal length 1.42–5.32. Base of prothorax not or scarcely narrower than the combined elytral bases, or distinctly narrower than the combined elytral bases. Greatest prothoracic width not narrower or only slightly narrower than the greatest elytral width, or distinctly narrower than greatest elytral width. Beetles elongate-oval to elongate; somewhat conspicuously necked, or not necked; conspicuously waisted; often brightly coloured and patterned; exhibiting bright ‘warning colours’, or without ‘warning colouration’. Upper surfaces of body non-glabrous; exhibiting stiff, erect, dark bristles, or not bristly; with neither scales nor scale-like setae.
Detailed morphology. Beetles without a rostrum. Inclination of the head slight. Eyes strongly protuberant, or not strongly protuberant; bristly, or without bristles. Antennae short to long, but not exceeding the insect’s head to tail length; 9–11 segmented. Antennal scape not swollen. Antennae gradually expanding acropetally, or clubbed (the club weakly defined). Antennal clubs 3–6 segmented. Antennal insertions visible from above, or hidden from above; not in fossae. Mandibular prosthecae well developed to absent.
Prothorax longer than wide. Pronotal length/maximum pronotal width 0.5–1.52. Prothorax at its widest markedly narrower than the adjoining part of the abdomen. Prothorax without notopleural sutures. Metaventrite without a transverse groove. The tarsi exhibiting bilobed segments; with a tiny basal segment that is hard to detect, or without ‘hidden’ segments. Mid-leg tarsi 4-segmented, or 5-segmented; pentamerous, or pseudotetramerous, or tetramerous. Claws of the mid-leg tarsi not appendaged. Front tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi, or with one segment fewer than the mid-tarsi; 4-segmented, or 5-segmented. Hind tarsi with as many segments as the mid-tarsi, or with one segment fewer than the mid-tarsi; 4-segmented, or 5-segmented. Tarsal claws simple, or one-toothed or bifid, or serrate, denticulate or pectinate; with an empodium between them (this usually bisetose), or without an associated empodium. Elytral length/maximum width across the elytra 0.89–3.65. Elytra covering most of the abdomen; exposing no more than part of the terminal tergite to at least three complete abdominal tergites; not truncate (distally rounded). Scutellary striole absent. Elytra non-glabrous. Wings well developed, or absent or much reduced.
Visible abdominal sternites 5–6; immovably joined 0. Abdominal segment 8 apparently without functional spiracles.
Habitat, ecology. Land-dwellers; predacious (on insects); in living vegetation (on flowers), or in rotting wood, or under bark.
General comments. Beetles clothed with erect bristles.
Larvae. Larvae predacious (on insects); in rotting wood and in or under bark.
Classification. Suborder Polyphaga; Superfamily Cleroidea.
British representation. Genera 9; Korynetes, Necrobia, Opilo, Paratillus, Tarsostenus, Thanasimus, Thaneroclerus, Tillus, Trichodes. 14 species; e.g., Necrobia violacea (Blue Corynetes); Necrobia ruficollis (Red-necked Necrobia); Tarsostenus univittatus (Shillingford's Opilus); Thanasimus formicarius (Ant-like Clerus); Tillus unifasciatus (Tillinae: Tricoloured Tillus); Trichodes alvearius (Bee-hive Beetle: extinct?.
Illustrations. • Trichodes alvearius (Bee-hive Beetle: B. Ent. 044. Extinct in Britain). • Trichodes alvearius (details, B. Ent. 044). • Trichodes alvearius: B. Ent. 044, legend+text. • Trichodes alvearius: B. Ent. 044, legend+text. • Necrobia violacea (Blue Corynetes: B. Ent. 351). • Necrobia violacea: B. Ent. 351, legend+text. • Necrobia violacea: B. Ent. 351, text cont.. • Necrobia ruficollis (Red-necked Necrobia: B. Ent. 350). • Necrobia ruficollis: B. Ent. 350, legend+text. • Necrobia ruficollis: B. Ent. 350, text cont.. • Tarsostenus univittatus (extinct?):B. Ent. 270. • Tarsostenus univittatus : B. Ent. 270, legend+text. • Tarsostenus univittatus : B. Ent. 270, text cont.. • Thanasimus formicarius (Ant-like Clerus: B. Ent. 398). • Thanasimus formicarius: B. Ent. 398, legend+text. • Thanasimus formicarius: B. Ent. 398, text cont.. • Tillus unifasciatus (Tri-coloured Tillus, extinct?) B. Ent. 267. • Tillus unifasciatus: B. Ent. 267, legend+text. • Tillus unifasciatus: B. Ent. 267, text cont..
To view the illustrations with captions giving names in current use, go to the interactive key. This also offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, source references, and other relevant material.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the families of Coleoptera. Version: 28th August 2009. http://delta-intkey.com’.
