''Lepicerus'' is a genus of

myxophaga Myxophaga is the second-smallest suborder of the Coleoptera after Archostemata, consisting of roughly 65 species of small to minute beetles in four families. The members of this suborder are aquatic and semiaquatic, and feed on algae. Descript ...

n beetles containing three described species in the family Lepiceridae; it is the only extant genus in the family, with another genus, '' Lepiceratus'' only known from fossils.Jałoszyński, Paweł; Luo, Xiao-Zhu; Hammel, Jörg U.; Yamamoto, Shûhei & Beutel, Rolf G. (2020). "The mid-Cretaceous †''Lepiceratus'' gen. nov. and the evolution of the relict beetle family Lepiceridae (Insecta: Coleoptera: Myxophaga)". ''Journal of Systematic Palaeontology''. 18 (13). Extant species occur in the

Neotropics 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 biogeog ...

, from Mexico south to Venezuela and Ecuador. Fossils referrable to the genus are known from the early Late Cretaceous of Southeast Asia.

Species

* ''

Lepicerus bufo ''Lepicerus'' is a genus of myxophagan beetles containing three described species in the family Lepiceridae; it is the only extant genus in the family, with another genus, '' Lepiceratus'' only known from fossils.Jałoszyński, Paweł; Luo, Xiao- ...

'' * ''

Lepicerus inaequalis ''Lepicerus inaequalis'' is a species of beetle belonging to the Lepiceridae family; It has sometimes been described as ''Lepicerus horni''. It occurs in Central America as well as in Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republ ...

'' * ''

Lepicerus pichilingue ''Lepicerus'' is a genus of myxophagan beetles containing three described species in the family Lepiceridae; it is the only extant genus in the family, with another genus, '' Lepiceratus'' only known from fossils.Jałoszyński, Paweł; Luo, Xiao- ...

'' Three additional species are known from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

(

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 ...

) as inclusions in

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 ...

from Myanmar. * '' Lepicerus georissoides'' * †''

Lepicerus mumia ''Lepicerus'' is a genus of myxophagan beetles containing three described species in the family Lepiceridae; it is the only extant genus in the family, with another genus, '' Lepiceratus'' only known from fossils.Jałoszyński, Paweł; Luo, Xiao- ...

'' * †'' Lepicerus pretiosus'' A. G. Kirejtshuk and G. Poinar. 2013. On the systematic position of the genera Lepiceroides gen. n. and Haplochelus, with notes on the taxonomy and phylogeny of the Myxophaga (Coleoptera). In D. Azar, M. Engel, E. Jarzembowski, L. Krogmann, A. Nel, J. Santiago-Blay (eds.), ''Insect Evolution in an Ambiferous and Stone Alphabet'' 55-69

Species

Extinct Lepiceridae genera

References

External links