Boganiidae is a 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, in the superfamily

Cucujoidea Cucujoidea is a superfamily of beetles. This group formerly included all of the families now included in the superfamily Coccinelloidea. They include some fungus beetles and a diversity of lineages of "bark beetles" unrelated to the "true" bark ...

. Members of the family are found in southern Africa, Australia and

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

. Adults and larvae are pollenivorous, feeding on the pollen of

cycads 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 or ...

and flowering plants of the families

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae (), the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All ...

Meliaceae Meliaceae, the mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs (and a few herbaceous plants, mangroves) in the order Sapindales. They are characterised by alternate, usually pinnate leaves without stipules, and by syncarp ...

Cunoniaceae Cunoniaceae is a family of 27 genera and about 335 species of woody plants in the order Oxalidales, mostly found in the tropical and wet temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere. The greatest diversity of genera are in Australia and Tasmania ...

and

Elaeocarpaceae Elaeocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants. The family contains approximately 615 species of trees and shrubs in 12 genera."Elaeocarpaceae" In: Klaus Kubitzki (ed.). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' vol. VI. Springer-Verlag: Ber ...

. '' Metacucujus'' and '' Paracucujus'' act as pollinators for cycads ''

Encephalartos ''Encephalartos'' is a genus of cycad native to Africa. Several species of ''Encephalartos'' are commonly referred to as bread trees, bread palms or kaffir bread, since a bread-like starchy food can be prepared from the centre of the stem. The ge ...

'' and ''

Macrozamia ''Macrozamia'' is a genus of around forty cycad species endemic to Australia. Many parts of the plant have been utilised for food and material, most of which is toxic if not processed correctly. Description A genus of cycads with partially sub ...

'' respectively. This association with cycads goes back to at least the Mid-Cretaceous, with an extinct form being found with preserved cycad pollen in 99 million year old

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. Th ...

Subfamilies and genera

*†'' Palaeoboganium'' Liu et al. 2017

Daohugou 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 conglomerates ...

, China, Middle Jurassic (

Callovian In the geologic timescale, the Callovian is an age and stage in the Middle Jurassic, lasting between 165.3 ± 1.1 Ma (million years ago) and 161.5 ± 1.0 Ma. It is the last stage of the Middle Jurassic, following the Bathonian and preceding the ...

) *Subfamily Boganiinae Sen Gupta and Crowson 1966 **'' Afroboganium'' Endrödy-Younga & Crowson, 1986 Africa **'' Boganium'' Sen Gupta & Crowson, 1966 Australia **†'' Cretoboganium'' Cai and Huang 2018

, Myanmar, Late Cretaceous (

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...

) * Paracucujinae Endrödy-Younga & Crowson, 1986 **'' Athertonium'' Crowson, 1990 Australia **†'' Cretoparacucujus'' Cai & Escalona, 2018 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian **'' Dzumacium'' Escalona, Lawrence, Wanat & Ślipiński, 2015 New Caledonia **'' Metacucujus'' Endrödy-Younga & Crowson, 1986 Africa **'' Paracucujus'' Sen Gupta & Crowson, 1966 Australia

References

Cucujoidea families {{Cucujoidea-stub