Genus Caenocara - Puffball Beetles

Classification · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Remarks · Works Cited

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Polyphaga (Water, Rove, Scarab, Long-horned, Leaf and Snout Beetles)

Superfamily Bostrichoidea (Carpet, Powder-post and Death-watch Beetles)

Family Ptinidae (Death-watch and Spider Beetles)

Subfamily Dorcatominae

Tribe Dorcatomini

Genus Caenocara (Puffball Beetles)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Enneatoma Mulsant & Rey 1864, Tylistus LeConte 1861

Genus needs revision (last revised by Fall 1905), so species ID's are questionable at best(1)

the latest sources treat the name as neuter(2)(3)

Explanation of Names

Caenocara Thomson 1859; Type species: C. bovistae (Hoffmann 1803) (Palearctic)

Numbers

14 spp. in our area(4), 3 in Europe...

Identification

eyes deeply emarginate to almost divided, body somewhat spherical(1)

Range

holarctic; in our area, transcontinental (NS-NT-YT-BC to FL-TX-CA)(2)(5), although records from central US are rather scarce

Habitat

Adults often on foliage, especially on dogwood and oak(5)

Food

Larvae develop in puffballs (Lycoperdaceae, Sclerodermataceae)

Remarks

One easy way to collect adults, pupae, and larvae is to break open ripe puffballs and shake them in a fine-mesh seive or sifter until most of the powdery spores have been eliminated. The remaining debris is likely to contain puffball beetles of all stages. This technique should be performed outdoors. Don't stand downwind or you'll be covered with spores. If you use a sifter, don't crank the handle or you'll have pureed beetles.

Works Cited

1.	Death-watch and spider beetles of Wisconsin—Coleoptera: Ptinidae Arango, R.A. and D.K. Young. 2012. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-209. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory.

2.	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.

3.	de Jong Y.S.D.M. (ed.) (2011) Fauna Europaea version 2.4

4.	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.

5.	A Catalog of the Coleoptera of America North of Mexico. Family: Anobiidae. White, R.E. 1982. USDA-ARS, Washington, DC. xi + 59 pp.

Contributed by Jim McClarin on 12 September, 2005 - 5:50pm
Additional contributions by Bbarnd, Mike Quinn, Boris Bueche, v belov
Last updated 18 March, 2015 - 2:46pm

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