False Click Beetles

Eucnemidae, or false click beetles, are a family of elateroid beetles including about 1700 species distributed worldwide.

Description

Closely related to the family Elateridae, specimens of Eucnemidae can reach a length of 2–30 mm (0.079–1.181 in). Bodies are slightly flattened and convex. The upper surfaces of the body usually has hairs, setae or scales.

Ecology

The larvae are typically legless, and generally develop feeding on the fluids of rotting wood, likely vomiting digestive enzymes into the wood to break apart the fungal hyphae, moving using their shovel shaped heads to force apart the wood. Adults, which are typically found on broken surfaces of trunks and stumps, have a short lifespan and it is unclear whether they feed, though they are capable fliers, and like some other elateroids are capable of clicking.^[1]

Taxonomy

Subfamilies

• Anischiinae Fleutiaux, 1936
• Eucneminae Eschscholtz, 1829
• Macraulacinae Fleutiaux, 1922
• Melasinae Leach, 1817
• Palaeoxeninae Muona, 1993
• Perothopinae Lacordaire, 1857 – perothopid beetles
• Phlegoninae Muona, 1993
• Phyllocerinae Reitter, 1905
• Pseudomeninae Muona, 1993

Fossil genera

• †Beattieellus Oberprieler et al. 2016 – Talbragar Fossil Bed, Australia, Late Jurassic (Tithonian)
• †Cenomana Otto, 2019 – Burmese amber, Myanmar, Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian)
• †Lissantauga Poinar 2013 – Dominican amber, Miocene
• †Muonabuntor Li, Tihelka & Cai, 2020^[2] – Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eucnemidae.

Wikispecies has information related to Eucnemidae.

• Biolib
• Discover Life
• J. F. Lawrence, A. M. Hastings, M. J. Dallwitz, T. A. Paine and E. J. Zurcher Elateriformia (Coleoptera) Archived 2012-06-09 at the Wayback Machine
• "Synopsis of the Described Coleoptera of the World"
• Muona, J. 1993. Review of the phylogeny, classification and biology of the family Eucnemidae (Coleoptera). Entomologica Scandinavica, Supplement No. 44, 133 pp.