Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Polyphaga » Series Cucujiformia » Tenebrionoidea » False Darkling Beetles (Melandryidae)

Family Melandryidae - False Darkling Beetles

Melandryidae, ID requested - Rushia californica

The other Serropalpus - Serropalpus - female

Another Spilotus quadripustulatus in Maryland - Spilotus quadripustulatus

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Polyphaga

No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)

Superfamily Tenebrionoidea

Family Melandryidae (False Darkling Beetles)

Explanation of Names

Melandryidae Leach 1815

Numbers

2 subfamilies, with ca. 60 spp. in 24 genera of in our area and ~430 spp. in 60 genera worldwide(1)(2)

Overview of our fauna

Family Melandryidae

Subfamily Melandryinae

Tribe Orchesiini Orchesia · Microscapha · Lederia

Tribe Serropalpini Amblyctis · Serropalpus

Tribe Xylitini Dolotarsus · Rushia · Scotochroa · Scotochroides · Spilotus · Xylita

Tribe Dircaeini Dircaea · Phloiotrya · Abdera · Anisoxya

Tribe Hypulini Hypulus · Microtonus · Symphora

Tribe Zilorini Zilora

Tribe Melandryini Prothalpia · Melandrya · Emmesa · Phryganophilus

Incertae sedis Enchodes

Subfamily Osphyinae Osphya

Range

worldwide and throughout NA(1)

Habitat

wooded areas

Larvae are found under bark or in dead logs with wood-decaying fungi.(3)

Food

fungi and dead wood (in the latter, perhaps also mostly the fungal component)(1)

Remarks

adults mostly nocturnal and crawl over dead wood and fungi at night(1) (best time to collect them); some come to lights

Works Cited

1.	American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea Arnett, R.H., Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.

2.	Order Coleoptera Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang Z.-Q. (ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification... Ślipiński S.A., Leschen R.A.B., Lawrence J.F. 2011. Zootaxa 3148: 203–208.

3.	Eastern Forest Insects Whiteford L. Baker. 1972. U.S. Department of Agriculture · Forest Service.

Contributed by tom murray on 11 May, 2005 - 7:53pm
Additional contributions by Phillip Harpootlian, v belov, Marci Hess
Last updated 18 July, 2023 - 8:11am

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