''Ceratocanthinae'' is a subfamily of the scarabaeoid beetle family

Hybosoridae Hybosoridae, sometimes known as the scavenger scarab beetles, is a family of scarabaeiform beetles. The 690 species in 97 genera occur widely in the tropics, but little is known of their biology. Hybosorids are small, 5–7 mm in length a ...

. It includes three tribes comprising 43 genera and 366 species; it was formerly treated as a separate family, Ceratocanthidae.

Description

Ceratocanthinae are small sized beetles from 2.0 to 10.0 millimeters in length. Adult beetles can be found on the bark and branches of dead trees and on

fungus A fungus (plural, : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of Eukaryote, eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and Mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified ...

Distribution

Ceratocanthinae are relatively widespread. They can be found in Australian,

Afrotropical The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...

, Indomalaysian,

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 bi ...

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 ...

, and

Palaearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Si ...

regions.

Ecology

The adults have been found to associate with

termites Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blatt ...

and

ants Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Creta ...

. Larvae live under bark and in burrows of bessbugs (

Passalidae Passalidae is a family of beetles known variously as "bessbugs", "bess beetles", "betsy beetles" or "horned passalus beetles". Nearly all of the 500-odd species are tropical; species found in North America are notable for their size, ranging fro ...

Taxonomy

The subfamily Ceratocanthinae contains 43 genera:

References

External links

Generic Guide to New World Scarab Beetles
HYBOSORIDAE... Ceratocanthinae Martínez, 1968 {{Taxonbar, from=Q30148056 Scarabaeiformia Beetle subfamilies