The family Oedemeridae is a cosmopolitan group 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 commonly known as false blister beetles, though some recent authors have coined the name pollen-feeding beetles. There are some 100 genera and 1,500 species in the family, mostly associated with rotting wood as larvae, though adults are quite common on flowers. The family was erected by

Pierre André Latreille Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom ...

in 1810.

Characteristics

Oedemeridae may be defined as slender, soft-bodied beetles of medium size found mostly on flowers and foliage. The head lacks a narrow neck, the

antenna Antenna ( antennas or antennae) may refer to: Science and engineering * Antenna (radio), also known as an aerial, a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic (e.g., TV or radio) waves * Antennae Galaxies, the name of two collid ...

e are long and filiform, the

pronotum 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 e ...

lacks lateral edges and is much narrower than

elytra An elytron (; ; , ) 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 (sometimes alterna ...

, the tarsi are heteromerous with bilobed penultimate segment, the procoxal cavities are open behind and the procoxae are conical and contiguous.

Natural history

The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

e of most genera are

xylophagous Xylophagy is a term used in ecology to describe the habits of an herbivorous animal whose diet consists primarily (often solely) of wood. The word derives from Greek ''ξυλοφάγος'' (''xulophagos'') "eating wood", from ''ξύλον'' (') ...

, boring tunnels in spongy, damp wood in an advanced state of decomposition; thus they have little economic importance, with the exception of one species, the "wharf borer" (''

Nacerdes melanura The wharf borer, ''Nacerdes melanura'', belongs to the insect order Coleoptera, the beetles. They belong to the family Oedemeridae, which are commonly known as false blister beetles. Wharf borers are present in all the states of the USA except ...

''), that is ever known to attain pest status, as its larvae bore into wet wood in coastal areas; larvae can also bore into wood located in the tidal zone so at times are submerged by

seawater Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has appro ...

, and can damage docks, wharves, and pilings. Larvae of the genera ''

Oedemera ''Oedemera'' is a genus of beetles of the family Oedemeridae, subfamily Oedemerinae.Vázquez, X. A. 2002. ''Fauna of European Oedemeridae''. Argania editio, Barcelona, 178 pp. Description Species in the genus ''Oedemera'' include slender, soft- ...

'' and ''

Stenostoma ''Leptotyphlops'' is a genus of nonvenomous blind snakes, commonly known as slender blind snakes and threadsnakes, in the family Leptotyphlopidae. The genus is endemic to and found throughout Africa. Eleven species have been moved to the genus ...

'' develop in dead stems of herbaceous plants. Adults contain the

toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a sub ...

cantharidin Cantharidin is an odorless, colorless fatty substance of the terpenoid class, which is secreted by many species of blister beetles. It is a burn agent or a poison in large doses, but preparations containing it were historically used as aphrodisia ...

in their corporal fluids as a defensive mechanism; several species show brilliant and metallic blue, green, gold or coppery, often combined with yellow, orange or red,

aposematic Aposematism is the advertising by an animal to potential predators that it is not worth attacking or eating. This unprofitability may consist of any defences which make the prey difficult to kill and eat, such as toxicity, venom, foul taste o ...

colourations. In temperate regions, adults are mainly

polyphagous Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffixes -vore, -vory, or -vorous from Latin ''vorare'', meaning "to devour", or -phage, -phagy, or -phagous from Greek φαγε ...

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametop ...

and

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualist ...

-feeding, and diurnal in activity. In tropical areas, most are nocturnal and are attracted to light.

Evolutionary history

The oldest known member of the family is '' Darwinylus'' from the

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0 ...

aged Alava amber from the

Escucha Formation The Escucha Formation is a geological Formation (geology), formation in La Rioja Province, Spain, La Rioja and Teruel Province, Teruel provinces of northeastern Spain whose strata date back to the late Aptian to middle Albian stages of the Early ...

, Spain, a basal member of the subfamily

Oedemerinae Oedemerinae are a subfamily of the false blister beetles ( family Oedemeridae), also known as pollen-feeding beetles. The Nacerdinae are sometimes merged here. The phylogeny of this family is not robustly deduced in detail. While traditional ...

. Unlike living species of the family, the specimen was found with

gymnosperm The gymnosperms ( lit. revealed seeds) are a group of seed-producing plants that includes conifers, cycads, '' Ginkgo'', and gnetophytes, forming the clade Gymnospermae. The term ''gymnosperm'' comes from the composite word in el, γυμν ...

(suspected to be

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male o ...

) pollen on its body, suggesting that the family had a gymnosperm associated prior to switching to flowering plants. Species of the extinct genus '' Ditysparedrus'' and extant genus '' Sparedrus'' belonging to the subfamily Calopodinae, are known from the

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in ...

aged

Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. The ...

of Myanmar. Parsley beetle 7377

References

External links

false blister beetles
on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site {{Taxonbar, from=Q637984 Polyphaga families

Characteristics

Natural history

Evolutionary history

See also

References

External links