Family DASCILLIDAE

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Introduction

This is a small family represented in Australia by a single genus Notodascillus Carter containing two species (Carter 1935). Worldwide the family contains 15 genera and about 80 species arranged in three subfamilies: Cinnabarinae, Dascillinae and Karumiinae. The Cinnabarinae contains the genus Coptocera Murray from southeast Asia. The Dascillinae is represented by five genera and occurs in mesic and humid parts of western North America and Eurasia, as well as eastern Australia (Notodascillus). The adults are floricolous and the larvae live freely in the soil feeding on organic matter (Lawrence 1982). The Karumiinae, which is sometimes regarded as a family in its own right (see Crowson 1971; Solervicens 1991), contains nine genera and occurs in arid regions of North and South America, north Africa and Asia Minor. It is thought they are associated with termites and all known females are flightless (Lawrence & Newton 1995).

Diagnosis

Dascillid adults are elongate, parallel-sided beetles ranging in length from 7.5 to 12 mm. They are light to dark brown beetles clothed with a greyish decumbent pubescence that forms narrow stripes on the elytra. The antennae are serrate and are not borne on tubercles. The pronotum is transverse with complete lateral carinae that are visible from above. The procoxae are transverse with exposed trochantins and the procoxal cavities are open behind both internally and externally. The mesocoxae are narrowly separated and the mesocoxal cavities are partly closed by the mesepisternum. The hindwing has a very short radial cell and no anal (wedge) cell. The tarsi are 5-segmented and bilobed, with tarsal segments 3 and 4 lamellate ventrally. The tarsal claws lack an empodium (Lawrence & Britton 1994).

Larvae are C-shaped with a large hypognathous head without stemmata, complex epipharyngeal and hypopharyngeal armature, well developed legs and cribriform spiracles. A well developed mandibular mola is present. The maxilla has a galea and lacinia that are falciform. The labrum is partly fused to the clypeus and antennae are 2-segmented with a sensorium at the apex. Tergite 9 bears a pair of minute urogomphi (Lawrence 1982).

General References

Carter, H.J. 1935. Australian Coleoptera. Notes and new species. No. IX. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 60: 179-193

Crowson, R.A. 1971. Observations on the superfamily Dascilloidea (Coleoptera: Polyphaga), with the inclusion of Karumiidae and Rhipiceridae. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology 50: 11-19

Lawrence, J.F. 1982. Coleoptera. pp. 482-553 in Parker, S.P. (ed.). Synopsis and Classification of Living Organisms. New York : McGraw Hill Vol. 2 vii 1232 pp.

Lawrence, J.F. & Britton, E.B. 1994. Australian Beetles. Melbourne : Melbourne University Press x 192 pp.

Lawrence, J.F. & Newton, A.F., Jr 1995. Families and subfamilies of Coleoptera (with selected genera, notes, references and data on family-group names). pp. 779-1006 in Pakaluk, J. & Ślipiński, S.A. (eds). Biology, Phylogeny and Classification of Coleoptera: Papers celebrating the 80th birthday of Roy A. Crowson. Warszawa : Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii PAN.

Solervicens, J. 1991. Descripción de la hembre de Pleolobus fuscescens Philippi y Philippi (Coleoptera, Karumiidae) y observaciones sobre esta espècie. Acta Entomologica Chilena 16: 119-124

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