Prostomidae is a family of beetles with no vernacular common name, though recent authors have coined the name jugular-horned beetles. They are often found in dead wood. The family consist of two extant

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

with about 20 species. ''

Prostomis americanus ''Prostomis'' is a genus of beetles in the family Prostomidae Prostomidae is a family of beetles with no vernacular common name, though recent authors have coined the name jugular-horned beetles. They are often found in dead wood. The family c ...

'' is known from

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Other species of ''

Prostomis ''Prostomis'' is a genus of beetles in the family Prostomidae Prostomidae is a family of beetles with no vernacular common name, though recent authors have coined the name jugular-horned beetles. They are often found in dead wood. The family c ...

'' are found in Europe, Africa, the Pacific region and East Asia. Species of '' Dryocora'' are known from New Zealand,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and Tasmania. Prostomidae are elongate beetles with parallel sided elytra. They have the mandibles forward facing (prognathous) and have a large jugular process. The antennae are 11 segmented with a weak club formed by the last three segments. The large mandibles, small eyes, the elytra and pronotum of the same width, and a

tarsal formula Tarsal formula is the number of segments of the tarsi, which has 3 numbers a-b-c, starting with the fore leg (a), then the middle leg (b), then the hind leg (c). For example, a tarsal formula of "5-5-4" as found in the Trictenotomidae The Tric ...

of 4-4-4 make them distinctive. Larvae and adults are found mainly inside fallen logs. The larvae feed on the rotten wood, particularly on the rotting heartwood of thick logs, as well as the mud-like matter found in red coloured decomposing wood. An extinct genus, '' Vetuprostomis'' is known from several species described from mid- Cretaceous Burmese amber found in northern Myanmar. It is suggested to be more closely related to ''Dryocora'' than to ''Prostomis.''

References

Tenebrionoidea Beetle families {{Prostomidae-stub