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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Polyphaga » Series Cucujiformia » Cucujoidea » Erotylid series » Pleasing Fungus Beetles (Erotylidae)

Family Erotylidae - Pleasing Fungus Beetles

Classification · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Food · See Also · Works Cited
Megalodacne heros Pleasing fungus beetle - Triplax thoracica Dasydactylus cnici Schaeffer - Dasydactylus cnici Beetle - Cypherotylus californicus Toramus chamaeropis (Schaeffer) - Toramus chamaeropis
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Cucujoidea
No Taxon (Erotylid series)
Family Erotylidae (Pleasing Fungus Beetles)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
includes Lizard Beetles, formerly treated as a separate family Languriidae but currently split into a number of groups placed into various subfamilies of Erotylidae
This site follows the classification of Węgrzynowicz (2002)(1)
Explanation of Names
Erotylidae Latreille 1802
Greek erotilos 'sweetheart, darling' (diminutive from eros)(2)
Numbers
>80 spp. in 20 genera in our area, ~3,500 spp. in 260 genera worldwide(3)(4)
Size
2‒22 mm
Identification
Erotylinae in (5) • key to NA genera in (6) • midwestern spp. in (7)
Overview of our fauna:
Family EROTYLIDAE
Subfamily Xenoscelinae
Genera Cryptophilus, Toramus, Pharaxonotha, *Hapalips, Loberus, Truquiella

Subfamily Erotylinae
Tribe Dacnini
Genera Dacne, Microsternus

Tribe Languriini
Genera Acropteroxys, Dasydactylus, Languria, Langurites

Tribe Erotylini
Genus Gibbifer

Tribe Tritomini
Genera Ischyrus, Triplax, Hirsutotriplax, Tritoma, Pseudischyrus, Mycotretus, Haematochiton

Tribe Encaustini
Genus Megalodacne
Range
worldwide and throughout N. Amer. except far north; most diverse in warmer climates, esp. in the tropics
Food
fruiting bodies of fungi growing in decaying wood(3)
See Also
Endomychidae · Nitidulidae · Tenebrionidae
Works Cited
1.Morphology, phylogeny and classification of the family Erotylidae based on adult characters (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea)
Węgrzynowicz P. 2002. Genus 13: 435-504.
2.The Century Dictionary: an encyclopedic lexicon of the English language
3.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.
4.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.
5.A revision of the Erotylidae of America north of Mexico (Coleoptera).
Boyle, W.W. 1956. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 110: 61-172. .
6.Skelley P.E. (2001) Pleasing fungus beetles of North America: Family Erotylidae
7.The Pleasing Fungus Beetles (Coleoptera: Erotylidae) of Nebraska
Goodrich M.A., Springer C.A. 1999. Trans. Nebr. Acad. Sci. 25: 53-71.
Contributed by Troy Bartlett on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, Beatriz Moisset, Phillip Harpootlian, Mike Quinn, Tim Moyer, v belov, Arturo Santos
Last updated 10 January, 2025 - 2:02pm

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