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Calendar
BugGuide Gathering
Smoky Mountains
University of Tennessee Biological Field Station
August 8-10, 2008
 
Photos from the gathering
 
Photos from the 2007 gathering in Minnesota

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Family Mordellidae - Tumbling Flower Beetles

Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga (Water, Rove, Scarab, Longhorn, Leaf and Snout Beetles)
Superfamily Tenebrionoidea (Fungus, Bark, Darkling and Blister Beetles)
Family Mordellidae (Tumbling Flower Beetles)
Other Common Names
Pintail Beetles (Internet searches)
Numbers
6 genera with 204 species in N. America.
Size
1.5-15 mm. usually 3-8 mm.
Habitat
Common on flowers and foliage; sometimes on dead trees and logs. Larvae occur in dead or dying hardwoods, in pith of weeds or in bracket fungi.
Food
Larvae are believed to eat plant material in decaying wood, etc. Some are leaf and stem miners. Some are predaceous. Adults visit flowers.
Print References
American Beetles, Vol. 2, Chapter 101 (2)
Instroduction to the Study of Insects (3)
Dillon p. 287, has key to some eastern genera, illustrates several on plate XXIX (4)
Liljeblad, Monograph of the Family Mordellidae (Coleoptera) of North America, North of Mexico(5)