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

Genus Mordellistena

Mordellistena cervicalis LeConte - Mordellistena cervicalis - male Tumbling Flower Beetle - Mordellistena vera Mordellistena trifasciata? - Mordellistena trifasciata black and red tumbling flower beetle - Mordellistena cervicalis tumbling flower beetle - Mordellistena masoni Coleoptera - Mordellistena yumae Mordellistena yumae Mordellistena husseyi
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 Mordellidae (Tumbling Flower Beetles)
Tribe Mordellistenini
Genus Mordellistena
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
formerly treated in a much broader sense, more or less coextensive with the current tribe(1)(2)
Explanation of Names
Mordellistena Costa 1854
Numbers
>130* spp. in our area(3), ~230 total(4)
*incl. 17 taxa of unclear status (known only from original descriptions)
Size
2-4 mm, rarely up to 5 mm
Identification
Larva: Mordellistena is the only genus in this family which larvae have characteristic tergal processes and paired urogomphi (comment by Artjom Zaitsev)
Range
cosmopolitan, incl. all of NA(5)(3)
Print References
Ford E.J., Jackman J.A. (1996) New larval host plant associations of tumbling flower beetles (Coleoptera: Mordellidae) in North America. Coleopterists Bulletin 50: 361-368.
Works Cited
1.Nomenclatural changes for selected Mordellidae (Coleoptera) in North America
J.A. Jackman & W. Lu. 2001. Insecta Mundi 15(1): 31-34.
2.Taxonomic changes for fifteen species of North American Mordellidae (Coleoptera)
Lisberg A.E. 2003. Insecta Mundi 17: 191-194.
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.BioLib.cz
5.Australian Faunal Directory