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

Genus Tenebrio - Mealworm beetles

Darkling Beetle - Tenebrio obscurus dark purplish beetle - Tenebrio molitor Tenebrio molitor Beetle - Tenebrio obscurus Cynaeus angustus - Tenebrio molitor Neatus tenebrioides ? - Tenebrio molitor Tenebrio obscurus - female Tenebrio obscurus - female
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 Tenebrionidae (Darkling Beetles)
Subfamily Tenebrioninae
Tribe Tenebrionini
Genus Tenebrio (Mealworm beetles)
Explanation of Names
Tenebrio Linnaeus 1758
Latin 'one who loves darkness'
Numbers
2 spp. (both adventive and cosmopolitan) in our area(1), 8 total
Range
most of the world, esp. temperate regions(1)
Habitat
mainly in buildings and storage, but may also occur in hollow trees, their natural habitat
Works Cited
1.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.