Byrrhidae, the pill beetles, is a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of
beetle
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
s in the superfamily
Byrrhoidea. They are generally found in damp habitats within cooler-high latitude regions of both hemispheres. Most byrhhids feed on moss, lichens and algae, though some species feed on vascular plants.
[Maier, Crystal A., Lawrence, John F. and Leschen, Richard A. B.. "Byrrhidae Latreille, 1804: Coleoptera, Beetles". ''Handbook of Zoology Online'', edited by Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016.] The oldest undoubted record of the family is ''
Lidryops'' from the earliest Late Cretaceous
Charentese amber of France, with other less certain records going back to the Middle Jurassic, but these possibly belong to Byrrhoidea. There around 500 extant species in 40 genera.
Taxonomy
There are about 450 species in this family.
[Lawrence, J. F., Slipinski, A., Jaeger, O., & Pütz, A. (2013)]
The Australian Byrrhinae (Coleoptera: Byrrhidae) with descriptions of new genera and species.
''Zootaxa'' 3745(3), 301-29.
Genera include:
Byrrhidae.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
*'' Amphycyrta''
*'' Arctobyrrhus''
*'' Byrrhus''
*'' Chaetophora''
*'' Curimopsis''
*'' Cytilus''
*'' Eusomalia''
*'' Exomella''
*'' Lioligus''
*'' Lioon''
*'' Listemus''
*'' Morychus''
*'' Porcinolus''
*'' Sierraclava''
*'' Simplocaria''
References
External links
*
*
Polyphaga families
{{Byrrhidae-stub