Family CUPEDIDAE Laporte, 1836
Compiler and date details
J.F. Lawrence, T.A. Weir and J.E. Pyke, CSIRO Entomology Updated by Andrew A. Calder, CSIRO Entomology & W.W.K. Houston, ABRS, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Introduction
The family Cupedidae contains two extant subfamilies: Priacminae with a single species Priacma serrata LeConte in northwestern North America and Cupedinae with seven genera and 27 species worldwide. The family is represented in Australia by the monotypic genus Distocupes and five species of Adinolepis (Neboiss 1984, 1987). Five additional genera in the subfamilies Mesocupedinae and Priacminae are known from the Lower Triassic to Lower Cretaceous of Siberia and Central Asia (Ponomarenko 1969). The formerly included genera, Omma Newman and Tetraphalerus Waterhouse, are now placed in the family Ommatidae.
Australian cupedids occur widely in forest and woodland from north Queensland to Tasmania and west to South Australia and Western Australia, but they are never very common (Neboiss 1960, 1984). Like Ommatidae they may be found in rainforest as well as in arid pastureland or open woodland. Adults are poor fliers (Atkins 1958). Some are attracted to lights at night, while P. serrata males will fly in numbers to bleach solution during the day (Atkins 1957). The structure of adult mouthparts suggests pollen-feeding habits; this is supported by the presence of pollen grains in the gut of one species and observations of another species frequenting flowers (Crowson 1962). All known larvae feed in dead wood, which may be firm and dry, but which has been attacked by wood-rotting fungi. The Japanese species Tenomerga mucida (Chevrolat) was found in wood infested with Stromatoscypha (as Porothelium) (Basidiomycetes : Schizophyllaceae) (Fukuda 1941). The Australian Distocupes varians (Lea) has been found in partly decayed spruce wood from a weatherboard house in Victoria (Neboiss 1968) and has been taken in dry-rotten structural timber on two occasions in Canberra. Pupation takes place within the woody substrate.
First instar larvae have been described for P. serrata (Ross & Pothecary 1970), while later instars are known for D. varians (Neboiss 1968), T. mucida (Fukuda 1938) and Tenomerga concolor (Westwood) (Böving & Craighead 1931). Pupae have been described for D. varians (Neboiss 1968) and T. concolor (Rozen 1963). The family has been catalogued by Gestro (1910), Janssens (1953), Atkins (1963) and Vulcano & Pereira (1975), reviewed by Crowson (1962) and revised by Neboiss (1984).
According to the phylogenetic analysis of Hörnschemeyer et al. (2006), Distocupes is sister to Adinolepis and Ascioplaga.
General References
Atkins, M.D. 1957. An interesting attractant for Priacmaserrata (Lec.), (Cupesidae: Coleoptera). The Canadian Entomologist 89: 214-219
Atkins, M.D. 1958. Observations on the flight, wing movements and wing structure of male Priacma serrata (Lec.) (Coleoptera:Cupedidae). The Canadian Entomologist 90: 339-347
Atkins, M.D. 1963. The Cupedidae of the world. The Canadian Entomologist 95: 140-162
Böving, A.G. & Craighead, F.C. 1931. An illustrated synopsis of the principal larval forms of the Coleoptera. Entomologica Americana 11: 1-351
Crowson, R.A. 1962. Observations on the beetle family Cupedidae, with descriptions of two new fossil forms and a key to the recent genera. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 13 5: 147-157 pls 3-4
Fukuda, A. 1938. Description of the larva and pupa of Cupes clathratus. Transactions of the Natural History Society of Formosa 28: 390-393 [inJapanese]
Fukuda, A. 1941. Some ecological studies on Cupes clathratus. Transactions of the Natural History Society of Formosa 31: 394-399 [in Japanese]
Gestro, R. 1910. Rhysodidae. Coleopterorum Catalogus IV(1): 1-11
Hörnschemeyer, T., Goebbels, J., Weidemann, G., Faber, C. & Haase, A. 2006. The head morphology of Ascioplaga mimeta (Coleoptera: Archostemata) and the phylogeny of Archostemata. European Journal of Entomology 103(2): 409-423
Janssens, E. 1953. Cupesidae, Paussidae (Editio secunda). Coleopterorum Catalogus 5: 1-84
Lawrence, J.F. 1991. Cupedidae (Archostemata). pp. 298-300 in Stehr, F.W. (ed.). Immature Insects. Coleoptera and Diptera. Dubuque, Iowa : Kendall-Hunt Vol. 2 xvi 975 pp.
Neboiss, A. 1960. On the family Cupedidae, Coleoptera. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 72: 12-20 pls 4-5
Neboiss, A. 1968. Larva and pupa of Cupes varians Lea, and some observations of its biology (Coleoptera: Cupedidae). Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne 28: 17-19 pl 7
Neboiss, A. 1984. Reclassification of Cupes Fabricius (s. lat.), with descriptions of new genera and species (Cupedidae: Coleoptera). Systematic Entomology 9: 443-477
Neboiss, A. 1987. A new species of Adinolepis Neboiss from Western Australia (Cupedidae: Coleoptera). Records of the Western Australian Museum 13(3): 323-325
Ross, D.A. & Pothecary, D.D. 1970. Notes on adults, eggs, and first-instar larvae of Priacma serrata (Coleoptera: Cupedidae). The Canadian Entomologist 102: 346-348
Rozen, J.G. 1963. Two pupae of the primitive suborder Archostemata. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 65(4): 307-310
Vulcano, M.A. & Pereira, F.S. 1975. Cupesidae (Coleoptera). Arquivos do Instituto Biologico, São Paulo 42: 31-68
History of changes
| Published | As part of group | Action Date | Action Type | Compiler(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29-Mar-2018 | MODIFIED |