Agyrtidae, or primitive carrion beetles, are a small family of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

s belonging to Staphylinoidea. They are found in mostly temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere and in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Characteristics

Agyrtidae are small or middle-sized beetles (length 4–14 mm). They have usually oval body, but the Pterolomatinae are superficially similar to

ground beetle Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan family (biology), family of beetles, the Carabidae, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, around 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Europe. As of 2015, it ...

Abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

is with five visible ventral

sclerite A sclerite (Greek language, Greek , ', meaning "hardness, hard") is a hardened body part. In various branches of biology the term is applied to various structures, but not as a rule to vertebrate anatomical features such as bones and teeth. Instea ...

s, procoxal cavities internally open. Hindwings have anal lobe but no radial hinge.

Ecology

The group have a diverse ecological habits, but appear to be mostly saprophagous. Necrophilinae is attracted to decaying material including carrion, rotting fungi and dung, in the vicinity of temperate forests. Agyrtinae have a diverse variety of habits, with the genus '' Lyrosoma'' being found on cold beaches of the North Pacific rim, where they have been found feeding on kelp and dead seabirds, while '' Ipelates'' is associated with decaying logs and fungi, leaf litter, vegetation and flowers. Pterolomatinae appears to be active predators, with '' Pteroloma'' having been found in wet and boggy habitats, especially cold mountain streams. Some '' Apteroloma'' species are found abundantly in mountain habitats, while others are found in open or forested areas.

Fossil record

The oldest unambiguous members of the family are from the Early Cretaceous of Asia, including '' Ponomarenkia'' from the Turga Formation and '' Palаeonecrophilus'' from the Khasurty locality, both of which are located in

Buryatia Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia, is a republic of Russia located in the Russian Far East. Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018. To its nort ...

in Russia, and date the

Aptian The Aptian is an age (geology), age in the geologic timescale or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early or Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), S ...

stage (~125–113 million years ago). The latter can be assigned to the modern subfamily Necrophilinae. Earlier claimed Jurassic records, such as '' Mesagyrtes'' and '' Mesecanus'' from the Middle Jurassic of China, require re-evaluation.

Systematics

Currently, about 60 species are known. The family is divided into three subfamilies: * Agyrtinae **'' Agyrtes'' (

Nearctic The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface. The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, and the highlands of Mexico. The parts of North America ...

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

, Oriental realms) **'' Ecanus'' (Palearctic) **'' Ipelates'' (Palearctic, Oriental realms) **'' Lyrosoma'' (coasts of northern Eastern Asia and north-westerrn North America) *Necrophilinae **'' Necrophilus'' (Western Palearctic, Oriental, and Nearctic) **'' Zeanecrophilus'' (New Zealand) *Pterolomatinae **'' Apteroloma'' (Nearctic, Palearctic,

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

, Oriental Realms) **'' Pteroloma'' (Nearctic, Palearctic) Until recently, species of this family had been included in the family

Silphidae Silphidae is a family of beetles that are known commonly as large carrion beetles, carrion beetles or burying beetles. There are two family (biology), subfamilies: Silphinae and Nicrophorinae. Members of Nicrophorinae are sometimes known as bury ...

(as tribes Lyrosomatini and Agyrtini), but are now considered more closely related to the family Leiodidae.Lawrence,J.F. & Newton,A.F., Jr. Evolution and classification of beetles. Annu. Rev. of Ecology and Systematics 13, 1982.

References

External links

Agyrtidae at Tolweb
{{Authority control Beetle families Staphylinoidea