The Cantharoid beetles are a group of beetles formerly placed in the now deprecated superfamily Cantharoidea. The family was found to be non-monophyletic taxonomic and most former members are now placed within the accepted superfamily

Elateroidea The Elateroidea are a large superfamily of beetles. It contains the familiar click beetles, fireflies, and soldier beetles and their relatives. It consists of about 25,000 species. Description Elateroidea is a morphologically diverse group ...

. Some former families, Drilidae and Omalisidae, are now placed within

Elateridae Elateridae or click beetles (or "typical click beetles" to distinguish them from the related families Cerophytidae and Eucnemidae, which are also capable of clicking) are a family of beetles. Other names include elaters, snapping beetles, sp ...

.. One former family,

Cneoglossidae Cneoglossidae is a family of beetles in the superfamily Byrrhoidea, containing nine described species in a single genus, ''Cneoglossa,'' which are native to the Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms const ...

, is now in the superfamily

Byrrhoidea Byrrhoidea is a superfamily of beetles belonging to Elateriformia that includes several families which are either aquatic or associated with a semi-aquatic habitat. Other than the superfamily Hydrophiloidea, most of the remaining Polyphagan beetle ...

Families

The superfamily contained ten families. These are now families in Elateroidea, except where indicated. *

Brachypsectridae The Brachypsectridae are a family of beetles commonly known as the Texas beetles. There are only two extant genera, '' Brachypsectra'' and '' Asiopsectra. Brachypsectra'' has a cosmopolitan distribution, mostly in arid regions, while ''Asiopsectr ...

Leconte & Horn, 1883 (Texas beetles). *

Champion, 1897. Now treated as a family in the superfamily

. * Homalisidae . This monotypic family contained the genus ''Homalisus'', which is now treated as genus '' Omalisus'' in subfamily

Omalisinae The Omalisinae (formerly family Omalisidae) are a small subfamily of morphologically derived elaterid beetles. The Omalisinae were long considered an independent family in the deprecated family Cantharoidea (more closely related to soft-bodied ...

. *

Lycidae The Lycidae are a family in the beetle order Coleoptera, members of which are commonly called net-winged beetles. These beetles are cosmopolitan, being found in Nearctic, Palearctic, Neotropical, Afrotropical, Oriental, and Australian ecoregions ...

Laporte, 1836 (net-winged beetles) * Drilidae Blanchard, 1845 (false firefly beetles). Now treated as tribe Drilini in subfamily Agryoninae of

. *

Phengodidae The beetle family Phengodidae is known also as glowworm beetles, whose larvae are known as glowworms. The females and larvae have bioluminescent organs. They occur throughout the New World from extreme southern Canada to Chile, numbering over ...

LeConte 1861 (glowworm beetles) * Telegeusidae Leng, 1920 (long-lipped beetles). Sometimes treated as subfamily of Omethidae. *

Lampyridae The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

Rafinesque, 1815 (firefly beetles) *

Omethidae Omethidae is a family of Elateroidea sometimes known as the false soldier beetles. They are native to South, Southeast and Eastern Asia and the Americas. Their biology is obscure and their larvae are unknown. They appear to inhabit vegetation in ...

LeConte, 1861 – (false soldier beetles) *

Cantharidae The soldier beetles (Cantharidae) are relatively soft-bodied, straight-sided beetles. They are Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan in distribution. One of the first described species has a color pattern reminiscent of the Red coat (Bri ...

Imhoff, 1856 (1815) (soldier beetles)

References

External links

Obsolete arthropod taxa Insect common names {{Elateroidea-stub