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

Species Ptinus tectus - Australian Spider Beetle

Representative Images

Ptinus tectus Boieldieu, 1856 - Ptinus tectus Ptinus tectus Boieldieu, 1856 - Ptinus tectus Ptinus ocellus - Ptinus tectus Ptinus ocellus - Ptinus tectus Found under a bed. - Ptinus tectus Found under a bed. - Ptinus tectus Small Brown Beetle - Ptinus tectus Ptinius tectus - Ptinus tectus

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
Superfamily Bostrichoidea
Family Ptinidae (Death-watch and Spider Beetles)
Subfamily Ptininae (Spider Beetles)
Tribe Ptinini
Genus Ptinus
No Taxon (subgenus Tectoptinus)
Species tectus (Australian Spider Beetle)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Ptinus ocellus Brown 1929

Explanation of Names

Ptinus tectus Boieldieu 1856 (conserved name)

Size

3-3.5 mm(1)

Identification

unlike other NA Ptinus spp., is densely clothed with recumbent, fulvous hairs obscuring the integument, but, unlike Niptus hololeucus, has distinct shoulders and narrowly inserted antennae(2)(3)

Range

cosmopolitan (but uncommon in the tropics)(4); native to Tasmania, introduced in NA from Australia(2) and now transcontinental (NF-BC to... TBA)(5)

Remarks

earliest record in our area: BC 1927(6)
as a pest, more important in Europe than in North America(4)

Internet References

Species page (Bennett 2003)(7)

Works Cited

1.Lompe A. (2002‒) Die Käfer Europas: Ein Bestimmungswerk im Internet
2.Beetles associated with stored products in Canada: An identification guide
Bousquet Y. 1990. Research Branch Agriculture Canada, Publication 1837.
3.Handbook of urban insects and arachnids: A handbook of urban entomology
Robinson W.H. 2005. Cambridge University Press.
4.Pests of Stored Foodstuffs and Their Control
Hill, D.S. 2002. Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands. 496 pp.
5.Checklist of beetles (Coleoptera) of Canada and Alaska. Second edition
Bousquet Y., Bouchard P., Davies A.E., Sikes D.S. 2013. ZooKeys 360: 1–402.
6.The Derodontidae, Dermestidae, Bostrichidae, and Anobiidae of the Maritime Provinces of Canada (Coleoptera: Bostrichiformia)
C.J. Majka. 2007. Zootaxa 1573: 1–38.
7.Bennett S.M. () The PiedPiper