''Pteryx'' is a genus 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 that is typically found in northern
bogs
A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main Wetland#Types, types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagm ...
in the
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...
. They belong to the family
Ptiliidae
Ptiliidae is a family of very tiny beetles (including the smallest of all beetles) with a cosmopolitan distribution. They are colloquially called featherwing beetles, because the hindwings are narrow and feathery.
There are approximately 600 des ...
which is referred to as feather-winged beetles as the
hindwings
Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwi ...
are narrow and feather-like. Like most of the rest of the family, ''Pteryx'' are very small and live in rotting vegetative matter. They prefer rotting wood and are generally found under the bark of rotting logs or stumps.
Description
The ''Pteryx'' are less than 1 mm in length. They are
polymorphic, in that they frequently occur in two forms, a normal variety, and a neonate form that has only vestigial wings, pale body pigmentation, and no pigmentation in their smaller eyes.
[Dybas, Henry S. (1978) "The Systematics, and Geographical and Ecological Distribution of Ptiliopycna, a Nearctic Genus of Parthenogenetic Featherwing Beetles (Coleoptera: Ptiliidae)" ''The American Midland Naturalist'' 99(1): pp. 83-100, page 96]
Distribution
''Pteryx'' are found in Eurasia and as far south as the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...
.
[Israelson, Gunnar (1976) "''Ptiliolum besucheti'' n. sp., ''Pteryx franzi'' n. sp., and ''Nephanes euphorbiicola'' n. sp. from the Canary Islands (Coleoptera: Ptilidae)" ''Entomologica Scandinavica'' 7(3): pp. 231-233] ''Pteryx'' are found in North America from Canada, to as far south as Georgia.
Although not restricted to bogs and swamps, they are found more abundantly in those locales.
Notes
Further reading
* Dybas, Henry S (1976) "The larval characters of featherwing and limulodid beetles and their family relationships in the Staphylinoidea (Coleoptera: Ptiliidae and Limulodidae)" ''Fieldiana Zoology'' 70(3): pp. 29–78
External links
Taxon: Genus ''Pteryx'' Matthews the Taxonomicon.
Ptiliidae
Staphyliniformia genera
{{Ptiliidae-stub