''Pteryx'' is a genus of
beetle
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
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 types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...
in the
Northern Hemisphere. They belong to the family
Ptiliidae
Ptiliidae is a family of very tiny beetles with a cosmopolitan distribution. This family contains the smallest of all beetles, with a length when fully grown of . The weight is approximately 0.4 milligrams. They are colloquially called fea ...
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
Polymorphism, polymorphic, polymorph, polymorphous, or polymorphy may refer to:
Computing
* Polymorphism (computer science), the ability in programming to present the same programming interface for differing underlying forms
* Ad hoc polymorphism ...
, 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 (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ...
.
[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