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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Adephaga » Whirligig Beetles (Gyrinidae)

Family Gyrinidae - Whirligig Beetles

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Identification · Range · Works Cited

Unidentified Whirligig Beetle - Dineutus

Dineutus sublineatus? - Dineutus sublineatus

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Adephaga

Family Gyrinidae (Whirligig Beetles)

Explanation of Names

Gyrinidae Latreille 1810

Numbers

60 spp. in 4 genera in our area, ~900 spp. in 14 genera worldwide arranged into 3 subfamilies (all but 2 spp. are in the Gyrininae)(1)(2)(3)

Identification

Neartic genera:

Spanglerogyrus <3mm (1 sp. South, East)

Gyretes 3-5 mm; pronotal/elytral margins pubescent (4 spp. West, South)

Dineutus 9-15 mm (14 spp. Widespread)

Gyrinus 4-7 mm (>40 spp. Widespread)

accessible keys in(4); new key to genera in(5)

Range

worldwide

Works Cited

1.	American Beetles, Volume I: Archostemata, Myxophaga, Adephaga, Polyphaga: Staphyliniformia Arnett, R.H., Jr., and M. C. Thomas. (eds.). 2000. 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.	Phylogeny and classification of whirligig beetles (Coleoptera: Gyrinidae): relaxed-clock model outperforms parsimony... Miller K.B., Bergsten J. 2012. Systematic Entomology 37: 706–746.

4.	The Water Beetles of Florida Epler J.H. 2010. Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Tallahassee. 414 pp.

5.	The New World whirligig beetles of the genus Dineutus Macleay, 1825 (Coleoptera, Gyrinidae, Gyrininae, Dineutini) Gustafson GT, Miller KB. 2015. Zookeys; 476: 1-135.

Contributed by Troy Bartlett on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm
Additional contributions by Phillip Harpootlian, Will Chatfield-Taylor, Tim Moyer, v belov
Last updated 3 August, 2023 - 1:46pm

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