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

Family Clambidae - Minute Beetles

Calyptomerus oblongulus - male Unknown  - Clambus pubescens Loricaster rotundus Grigarick & Schuster - Loricaster rotundus Clambus howdeni - Clambus simsoni Micro Beetle B - Clambus Clambus simsoni - male Clambus? - Clambus Calyptomerus oblongulus - Calyptomerus
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Elateriformia)
Superfamily Scirtoidea
Family Clambidae (Minute Beetles)
Explanation of Names
Clambidae Fischer von Waldheim 1821
Numbers
13 spp. in 3 genera in our area; 170 spp. in 6 genera total(1)
Size
0.7-2.0 mm(2)
Identification
minute, oval, convex, most capable of rolling into a ball, with head strongly deflexed. Divided eyes, large metacoxal plate. Most with dense decumbent setae. Tarsi 4-4-4.(2)
Key to northeastern fauna in Majka and Langor (2009)(3)
Habitat
decaying plant material
Works Cited
1.New country record for Clambus formosanus japonicus Endrödy-Younga (Coleoptera: Clambidae) from the USA, with an updated key...
Hinson K.R., Chandler D.S., Keller O. 2020. Col. Bull. 74: 181-187.
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.Clambidae (Coleoptera) of Atlantic Canada
Majka, C.G. and D.W. Langor. 2009. Journal of the Acadian Entomological Society 5: 32-40.