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

Species Palorus ratzeburgii - Small-eyed Flour Beetle

Tenebrionidae - Palorus ratzeburgii Tenebrionidae - Palorus ratzeburgii Palorus ratzeburgi - Palorus ratzeburgii Small-eyed Flour Beetle - Palorus ratzeburgii Small-eyed Flour Beetle - Palorus ratzeburgii Small-eyed Flour Beetle - Palorus ratzeburgii Tribolium castaneum? - Palorus ratzeburgii Tribolium castaneum? - Palorus ratzeburgii
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 Triboliini
Genus Palorus
Species ratzeburgii (Small-eyed Flour Beetle)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Palorus ratzeburgii (Wissmann)
Orig. Comb: Hypophloeus ratzeburgii Wissmann, 1848
Syn: ratzeburgi (spelling) (SEE)
Size
~2.5 mm (1)
Range
currently cosmopolitan (2)
native to Africa (3);
Habitat
granaries, bakeries, flour mills, warehouses, but also under bark (2)(1)
Food
Adults and larvae feed mainly on damaged and moldy grain, showing a preference for wheat and oat products (2); also flour, meal, maize, peanuts, and cassava meal (1)
Remarks
earliest record in our area: before 1910 (4)
Works Cited
1.Handbook of urban insects and arachnids: A handbook of urban entomology
Robinson W.H. 2005. Cambridge University Press.
2.Beetles associated with stored products in Canada: An identification guide
Bousquet Y. 1990. Research Branch Agriculture Canada, Publication 1837.
3.Alien terrestrial arthropods of Europe
Roques A., Kenis M., Lees D., Lopez-Vaamonde C., Rabitsch W., Rasplus J.-Y., Roy D., eds. 2010. BioRisk 4 Special Issue; 2 vols., 1028 pp.
4.The Tenebrionidae (Coleoptera) of the Maritime Provinces of Canada
Majka C.G., Bouchard P., Bousquet Y. 2008. Can. Entomol. 140: 690‒713.