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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Polyphaga » Series Cucujiformia » Lymexyloidea » Lymexylidae

Family Lymexylidae

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Range · Habitat · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · Works Cited
not a darkling beetle beetle - Hylecoetus lugubris - male beetle - Hylecoetus lugubris - female Long, brown beetle - Melittomma sericeum Lymexylidae, Chestnut timberworm - Melittomma sericeum stash - Melittomma sericeum stash - Melittomma sericeum Melittomma sericeum
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Lymexyloidea
Family Lymexylidae
Explanation of Names
Lymexylidae Fleming 1821
Numbers
2 spp. in 2 genera of 2 subfamilies in our area (+one questionable)(1), 70 spp. in 10 genera of 4 subfamilies total(2)
Range
worldwide, more diverse in the southern hemisphere; in our area, e. US (+a questionable CA record)(1)
Habitat
Wood borers: in NA, hardwoods(1), in Eurasia also common on conifers
Food
Hosts in NA: poplar, oak, and chestnut(1)
Life Cycle
As the female lays eggs, each are coated with Endomyces, a fungal partner that helps digest the wood.(3)
Remarks
To keep optimal fungal growth conditions within the chambers, the larvae clean the debris with sweeps of their long, spiny tails.(3)
An example of this tail
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.
2.Order Coleoptera Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang Z.-Q. (ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification...
Ślipiński S.A., Leschen R.A.B., Lawrence J.F. 2011. Zootaxa 3148: 203–208.
3.Hidden Company that Trees Keep: Life from Treetops to Root Tips
James B. Nardi. 2023. Princeton University Press.
Contributed by Jim McClarin on 8 January, 2007 - 7:03pm
Additional contributions by Phillip Harpootlian, v belov, Marci Hess
Last updated 24 September, 2023 - 10:26am

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