Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Subfamily Korynetinae

Small beetle - Necrobia rufipes Coleoptera - Necrobia rufipes Carcass feeder - Necrobia violacea Necrobia rufipes Necrobia rufipes? - Necrobia rufipes Necrobia rufipes? - Necrobia rufipes Small beetle on deer carcass - Necrobia violacea Necrobia violacea - Cosmopolitan Blue Bone Beetle - Necrobia violacea
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Cleroidea
Family Cleridae (Checkered Beetles)
Subfamily Korynetinae
Explanation of Names
Korynetinae Laporte de Castelnau 1836
Numbers
3 spp. (all cosmopolitan and probably adventive) in a single genus in our area(1), 76 spp. in 7 genera total(2)(3)
Range
Necrobia is cosmopolitan, other genera mostly in the African savanna, with some representation in other parts of the Old World(2)
NB: Contrary to the statement in(2), there is no Korynetinae endemic to the New World, as clarified by W. Opitz (pers. comm. to =v=, 16.ii.2012)
Habitat
most commonly, associated with the decomposition of vertebrate corpses, particularly fish and mammal(2)
Food
our spp. feed on proteinaceous remains on bones and skin and may prey on saprophytic insects(2)
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.Classification, natural history, phylogeny, and subfamily composition of the Cleridae and generic content of the subfamilies
Opitz W. 2010. Entomologica Basiliensia et Collections Frey 32: 31–128.
3.Classification, natural history, and evolution of Korynetinae Laporte (Coleoptera: Cleridae). Part I. Generic composition...
W. Opitz. 2011. Journal of Afrotropical zoology 7: 29-67.