Epuraea
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''Epuraea'' is a genus of sap-feeding beetles in the family
Nitidulidae The sap beetles, also known as Nitidulidae, are a family of beetles. They are small (2–6 mm) ovoid, usually dull-coloured beetles, with knobbed antennae. Some have red or yellow spots or bands. They feed mainly on decaying vegetable ma ...
, first described in 1843 by
Wilhelm Ferdinand Erichson Wilhelm Ferdinand Erichson (26 November 1809 – 18 December 1848) was a German entomologist and doctor. He was the author of many articles about insects mainly in ''Archiv für Naturgeschichte''. When writing in Latin, he latinised ''Wilhelm'' ...
. There are at least 40 described species in ''Epuraea''. Their most notable food source is sap but these beetles also feed on organic matter such as fruits, flowers, fungi, decaying plant tissue, and the tissue of dead animals. Some species occur in
bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...
nests. ''Epuraea'' beetles commonly overwinter underneath logs or in soil.


Description

According to a key to North American nitidulid genera, ''Epuraea'' has the following combination of features: head vertical, labrum free,
prothorax The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum ( ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ...
not margined at base,
elytra An elytron (; ; : elytra, ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometime ...
truncate apically to expose only
pygidium The pygidium (: pygidia) is the posterior body part or shield of crustaceans and some other arthropods, such as insects and the extinct trilobites. In groups other than insects, it contains the anus and, in females, the ovipositor. It is compos ...
(and, at most, the posterior edge of the penultimate abdominal
tergite A ''tergum'' (Latin for "the back"; : ''terga'', associated adjective tergal) is the Anatomical terms of location#Dorsal and ventral, dorsal ('upper') portion of an arthropod segment other than the head. The Anatomical terms of location#Anterior ...
), middle and hind tibiae with two rows of small marginal spines on their outer edges, a
tarsal formula A tarsal formula states the number of segments of an insect's tarsi as three numbers, a-b-c, starting with the fore leg (a), then the middle leg (b), then the hind leg (c). For example, a tarsal formula of "5-5-4" as found in the Trictenotomid ...
of 5-5-5 (meaning each tarsus has five segments), and the first three tarsomeres bilobed.


See also

*
List of Epuraea species This is a list of species in the genus '' Epuraea''. ''Epuraea'' species * '' Epuraea adumbrata'' (Mannerheim, 1852) * '' Epuraea aestiva'' (Linnaeus, 1758) * '' Epuraea alternans'' Grouvelle, 1912 * '' Epuraea alternata'' Parsons, 1969 * '' Epu ...


References

* Parsons, Carl T. (1943). "A revision of Nearctic Nitidulidae (Coleoptera)". ''Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, vol. 92, no. 3'', 121–278.


Further reading

* * Richard E. White. (1983). ''Peterson Field Guides: Beetles''. Houghton Mifflin Company.


External links

*
''Epuraea'': images & occurrence data
from
GBIF The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around the ...

NCBI Taxonomy Browser, ''Epuraea''
Nitidulidae Cucujoidea genera Beetles described in 1843 Taxa named by Wilhelm Ferdinand Erichson {{Nitidulidae-stub