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Genus Caenocara - Puffball Beetles
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)
Det. E. G. Riley, 2014
Range holarctic; in our area, transcontinental (NS-NT-YT-BC to FL-TX-CA) - Map (2)(5)(GBIF)
Habitat Adults often on foliage, especially on dogwood and oak (5)
Food Larvae develop in puffballs (Lycoperdaceae, Sclerodermataceae)
Life Cycle Grub, pupa and adult
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. | |
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. |  |
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