Helotidae 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 suborder

Polyphaga Polyphaga is the largest and most diverse suborder of beetles. It comprises 144 families in 16 superfamilies, and displays an enormous variety of specialization and adaptation, with over 350,000 described species, or approximately 90% of the b ...

. The family includes about five extant genera, ''Helota'' MacLeay, ''Neohelota'' Ohta, ''Afrohelotina'' Kirejtshuk, ''Metahelotella'' Kirejtshuk, and ''Strophohelota'' Kirejtshuk. Helotidae are found mainly in the Old World tropics and are absent from Australia and Madagascar. The antennae are clubbed on the final three segments and is retractable within grooves under the head. The wings have reduced venation with just 4 anal veins. Helotids are known to be associated with sap, fruit and flowers, and the larvae of some species are known to bore into wood in order to pupate. A few fossil genera have been described including ''Palaeohelota'' from the Lower Cretaceous (

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 ...

)

Yixian Formation The Yixian Formation (; formerly Romanization of Chinese, transcribed as Yihsien Formation or Yixiang Formation) is a geological formation in Jinzhou, Liaoning, People's Republic of China, that spans the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous. I ...

in China, ''Burmahelota,'' ''Metahelotella'' and ''Trihelota'' from the Upper 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 ...

)

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 ...

of Northern Myanmar. Another fossil genus ''Laodiscis'' placed in this family originally is now considered of uncertain taxonomic position.

References

Additional sources

* Ritsema C. (1915) '' A systematic catalogue of the Coleopterous family Helotidae in the Leiden Museum''

Zoologische Mededelingen ''Zoologische Mededelingen'' was a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal publishing papers and monographs on animal systematics. The publisher was the National Museum of Natural History Naturalis in the Netherlands. The first issue appeared ...

, Vol. 1 P. 125-13
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* Wegrzynowicz P. (2000) ''Catalogue of the Helotidae (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea)'',

, Vol. 73 P. 391-41
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Cucujoidea families Cucujoidea {{Cucujoidea-stub