Family CALLIRHIPIDAE

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Family CALLIRHIPIDAE

Compiler and date details

1 December 1999 - Andrew A. Calder, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Introduction

This is a small family represented in Australia by four species arranged in two genera: Callirhipis Latreille and Ennometes Pascoe. The Callirhipidae are a widespread family being found mostly in subtropical to tropical regions but are absent from New Zealand. It contains approximately eight genera and 150 species worldwide. Callirhipis is found worldwide, Ptorthocera Champion, Zenoa Say, Celadonia Castelnau and Brachyrrhipis Emden are New World genera, Simianus Blanchard and Simianellus Emden are tropical Asian genera, while Ennometes occurs in the Indomalayan-Australian region (Emden 1931; Lawrence 1982).

Callirhipis ruficornis, collected from an unknown locality in New South Wales, was the first Australian callirhipid to be described (Gray 1832). Pascoe (1866) erected the genus Ennometes to accommodate his new species lacordairei which was from Queensland. However, Pascoe did not realise that his lacordairei was the male of Gray's ruficornis which was in fact a female. Blackburn (1896) described Callirhipis cardwellensis from north Queensland and Lea (1914) reviewed our knowledge of the Australian callirhipids, also describing two new species from north Queensland.

Adults are usually collected from wet sclerophyll forests and rainforests from coastal northern New South Wales to Queensland. The larvae can often be found in large numbers boring through rotten logs on the forest floor preferring to feed on the soft decayed wood (Lawrence & Britton 1994).

Diagnosis

Adult callirhipids are elongate, moderately convex beetles ranging in length from 10 to 20 mm in length. The body is either glabrous or clothed with fine hairs. The antennae are pectinate in females and flabellate in males with the antennal insertions being strongly raised. A frontoclypeal suture is absent, the mandibles are robust and strongly bent with two or three apical teeth; both a mola and prostheca are absent. The prothorax is quite distinctive being characteristically 'hooded' over the head and possessing obsolete lateral edges. The procoxae project below the prosternum, the trochantins are exposed and the procoxal cavities are open behind both internally and externally. The prosternal process is narrow. The elytra are ribbed. The hindwing has an elongate, vertically closed radial cell and has an anal (wedge) cell. The tarsal formula is 5-5-5 and the segments are not lobed; the empodium is well developed and plurisetose (Lawrence 1982; Lawrence & Britton 1994).

Callirhipid larvae are heavily sclerotised and cylindrical. The head is globular and stemmata are absent. The antnennae are single-segmented. The mandibles are stout and lack both a prostheca and brush. The maxillary articulating area is reduced with the submentum and basal portion of the mentum obliterated such that the stipites and cardines meet at the midline. The legs are short with reduced segments. Abdominal tergite 9 forms a dorsally hinged operculum; no hooks, gills or papillae are present. The spiracles are biforous (Lawrence & Britton 1994).