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Cucujoidea

Cucujoidea is a superfamily of beetles. This group formerly included all of the families now included in the superfamily Coccinelloidea. They include some fungus beetles and a diversity of lineages of "bark beetles" unrelated to the "true" bark beetles (Scolytinae), which are weevils (superfamily Curculionoidea).

Morphology

The morphology of Cucujoidea is varied and there are no features uniting all members of the superfamily. In terms of general appearance, they tend to be small, drab in colour and with clubbed antennae. Even this is not universal; for example, Glischrochilus (Nitidulidae) have aposematic orange spots on their elytra.

Adults can be recognised by the procoxal cavities being internally open in most taxa, females having tarsal formula 5-5-5 and males 5-5-5 or 5-5-4 (rarely 4-4-4), females with tergite VIII concealed dorsally by tergite VII, and males with tergite X completely membraneous.

Larvae have frontal arms usually lyriform, the mandible mesal surface usually with well-developed mola, a maxillary articulating area usually present, a hypopharyngeal sclerome usually present, and two pretarsal setae.

Ecology

Cucujoidea usually have cryptic habits, living in fungi, leaf litter or dead wood. This is reflected in many families having "fungus" or "bark" in their common names. The Kateretidae and some Phalacridae feed on flowers instead. The Nitidulidae are quite varied: some are saprophagous and mycetophagous like typical cucujoids, but others are associated with carrion, flowers, insect nests or stored food products.

Taxonomy

According to a 2015 revision, the following 25 families make up superfamily Cucujoidea:

Extinct genera

References

External links