Leiodidae

Leiodidae is a family of beetles with around 3800 described species found worldwide. Members of this family are commonly called round fungus beetles due to the globular shape of many species, although some are more elongated in shape. They are generally small or very small beetles (less than 10 mm in length) and many (but not all) species have clubbed antennae.

Leiodidae
Temporal range:
Anisotoma humeralis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Infraorder: Staphyliniformia
Superfamily: Staphylinoidea
Family: Leiodidae
Fleming, 1821
Subfamilies[1]
Diversity
at least 380 genera

Members of the family are generally saprophagous or scavengers feeding on carrion or decaying organic matter like dung, or are specialised on feeding on specific types of fungus. Many species have reduced wings, with about half of all described species being flightless.[2]

The oldest fossil of the family is Mesagyrtoides from Shar-Teg, Mongolia, dating the Late Jurassic (Tithonian). Members of modern subfamilies appear during the Cretaceous, with Cretaceous members of the family being primarily known from Burmese amber.[3]

See also

References
  1. Bouchard, Patrice; Bousquet, Yves; Davies, Anthony E.; Alonso-Zarazaga, Miguel A.; et al. (2011). "Family-group names in Coleoptera (Insecta)". ZooKeys (88): 1–972. doi:10.3897/zookeys.88.807. ISSN 1313-2989. PMC 3088472. PMID 21594053.
  2. Newton, Alfred F. (2016). "Leiodidae Fleming, 1821, Coleoptera, Beetles". In Schmidt-Rhaesa, Andreas Berlin, Boston (ed.). Handbook of Zoology Online. De Gruyter. Retrieved 2022-10-02.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  3. Bao, Tong; Antunes-Carvalho, Caio (December 2020). "Two new polyphagan beetles (Tenebrionidae, Leiodidae) from lower Cenomanian amber of Myanmar". Cretaceous Research. 116: 104599. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104599. S2CID 224930238.

Data related to Leiodidae at Wikispecies


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