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

Family Aderidae - Ant-like Leaf Beetles

Beetle - Syzeton signatus Antlike Leaf Beetle - Ganascus ventricosus Aderid - Cnopus Aderid - Syzeton gruberi Aderini sp.? - Syzeton fasciatus beetle062918b - Elonus gruberi Aderidae - Vanonus Aderidae 3 - Syzeton
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 Aderidae (Ant-like Leaf Beetles)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Xylophilidae Shuckard 1840, Euglenesidae (=Euglenidae) Seidlitz 1875, Hylophilidae Pic 1900
Revised in(1) but many western species still undescribed(2)
Tribal and generic limits remain unclear; world fauna has to be examined to resolve these limits(2)
Explanation of Names
Aderidae Csiki 1909
Numbers
4 tribes, with ~50 species in 11 genera in our area(2) and ~900 spp. in 50 genera total(3)
Overview of nearctic generaFamily Aderidae
Tribe Aderini
Subtribe Cnopina Cnopus
Subtribe Aderina Aderus
Incertae sedis Cedraderus
Size
1-4 mm(2)
Identification
Somewhat ant-like. Head strongly deflexed, wider than long, and wider than pronotum, abruptly constricted at base in most. Eyes usually large, coarsely granulate and weakly to strongly emarginate, with setae between facets. Two basal abdominal sternites fused.
Range
Worldwide
Habitat
Adults found on the underside of leaves of various trees/shrubs. Larvae in rotting wood, bee nests, termite nests, leaf litter, under bark(2)
Internet References
Aderidae of Texas (Quinn 2021)
(4)
Works Cited
1.Revision of the Aderidae of eastern North America.
Werner, F.G. 1990. Journal of the New York Entomological Society, 98: 187-232.
2.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.
3.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.
4.Gompel N. (2010) An iconography of Aderidae species from North America and Western Europe