Ant-like stone beetle
Encyclopedia
Scydmaenidae is a family
of small beetle
s, commonly called ant-like stone beetles or scydmaenids. These beetles occur worldwide, and the family includes some 4,500 species
in about 80 genera
.
Many scydmaenid species have a narrowing between head and thorax and thorax and abdomen, resulting in a passing resemblance to ant
s that inspires their common name. The largest measure just 3 millimeters long, while some very small species only reach half a millimeter in length. Scydmaenids typically live in leaf litter and rotting logs in forests, preferring moist habitats. A number of types are known to feed on oribatid mites, using "hole scraping" and "cutting" techniques to get through the mite's hard shells.
In addition to the two living subfamilies, the prehistoric subfamily Hapsomelinae, known only from fossil
s, has been placed here.
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
of small beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
s, commonly called ant-like stone beetles or scydmaenids. These beetles occur worldwide, and the family includes some 4,500 species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
in about 80 genera
Genera
Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...
.
Many scydmaenid species have a narrowing between head and thorax and thorax and abdomen, resulting in a passing resemblance to ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s that inspires their common name. The largest measure just 3 millimeters long, while some very small species only reach half a millimeter in length. Scydmaenids typically live in leaf litter and rotting logs in forests, preferring moist habitats. A number of types are known to feed on oribatid mites, using "hole scraping" and "cutting" techniques to get through the mite's hard shells.
In addition to the two living subfamilies, the prehistoric subfamily Hapsomelinae, known only from fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s, has been placed here.
Selected genera
- Cephennium
- Elacatophora Schaufuss, 1884 (including Borneosabahia)
- Euconnus Thomson, 1859
- Eutheia
- Horaeomorphus Schaufuss, 1889
- Loeblites Franz, 1986
- Microscydmus Saulcy & Croissandeau, 1893
- Nevraphes
- Parastenichnaphes Franz, 1984
- Protoscydmus Franz, 1992
- Scydmaenus
- Siamites Franz, 1989
- Stenichnus Thomson, 1859
- Syndicus Motschulsky, 1851