Prionoceridae is a small family 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 suborder Polyphaga. They form a group within the cleroid beetles and were formerly treated as a subfamily (Prionocerinae) within the family

Melyridae Melyridae (common name: soft-winged flower beetles) are a family of beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea. Description Most are elongate-oval, soft-bodied beetles 10 mm long or less. Many are brightly patterned in black and brown, yellow, ...

. Very little is known of their life history but most species are pollen feeders as adults and occur in large numbers during spring or the host flowering season. Larvae are predatory or feed on decomposing wood.

Description

Beetles in the family are elongate with soft elytra. The elytra are often covered with rows of hairs. The margin of the eyes are not round but notched anteriorly. The head faces forward (prognathous) and the clypeal region is produced into a short flat snout. Each of the legs have five tarsi (5-5-4 in the

Oedemeridae The family Oedemeridae is a cosmopolitan group of beetles 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 associate ...

) with simple claws and a single spur on the pro-tibia. Male '' Idgia'' and '' Prionocerus'' have a comb on the inner edge of the distal tarsal segment of the foreleg. The genera '' Nacerdes'' and '' Xanthochroa'' in the family

and some

Cantharidae The soldier beetles (Cantharidae) are relatively soft-bodied, straight-sided beetles. They are cosmopolitan in distribution. One of the first described species has a color pattern reminiscent of the red coats of early British soldiers, hence the ...

bear resemblance to some of the Prionoceridae. Members of the family were formerly included as a subfamily within the closely related

(the genus '' Lobonyx'' in Dasytinae). The fossil record of Prionoceridae has been recorded from the Middle Jurassic

Daohugou beds The Haifanggou Formation (), also known as the Jiulongshan Formation (), is a fossil-bearing rock deposit located near Daohugou () village of Ningcheng County, in Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. The formation consists of coarse conglomerat ...

of China ('' Idgiaites jurassicus''), the Cenomanian

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 ...

('' Cretaidgia burmensis'') and

Ypresian In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age or lowest stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by the Eocene Lutetian Age. The Ypresian ...

Hat creek Amber from Canada ('' Prionocerites tattriei''). Idgia sp

Diversity

There are around 150 species in three genera; '' Idgia'' (Palaeotropical), '' Lobonyx'' (mostly Palaearctic), and '' Prionocerus'' . The following is a partial list of the species that have been described (the generic placement and validity are unverified and likely to be out of date): *†'' Cretaidgia'' **†'' C. burmensis'' *'' Idgia'' ** See genus article *†'' Idgiaites'' **†'' I. jurassicus'' *'' Lobonyx'' **'' L. aeneus'' **'' L. gracilis'' **'' L. guerryi'' **'' L. thoracicus'' *†'' Prionocerites'' **†'' P. tattriei'' *'' Prionocerus'' **'' P. bicolor'' **'' P. caeruleipennis'' **'' P. championi'' **'' P. malaysiacus'' **'' P. paiensis'' **'' P. opacipennis'' **'' P. viridiflavus'' **'' P. wittmeri''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q264839 Cleroidea Polyphaga families