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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Water, Rove, Scarab, Long-horned, Leaf and Snout Beetles (Polyphaga) » Carpet, Powder-post and Death-watch Beetles (Bostrichoidea) » Death-watch and Spider Beetles (Ptinidae) » Dorcatominae » Dorcatomini » Puffball Beetles (Caenocara)

Genus Caenocara - Puffball Beetles

Classification · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · Works Cited
Puffball Beetle - Caenocara beetle - Caenocara Caenocara sp? - Caenocara another round one - Caenocara Caenocara
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.
3.de Jong Y.S.D.M. et al. (2014) Fauna Europaea - all European animal species on the web. Biodiversity Data Journal 2: e4034.
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, marcie oconnor
Last updated 22 April, 2022 - 4:54am

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