Family NOTERIDAE

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Introduction

This family includes 12 genera and 230 species worldwide. Four genera and six species occur in Australia. Larvae (Angaragabus Ponomarenko) and adults (Liadytes Ponomarenko) from Lower Jurassic beds in Siberia may be the oldest fossil representatives of the group (Arnoldi et al. 1977; Crowson 1981). The family is considered to be most closely related to Dytiscidae and its members were once included in that family.

Noterids frequent a variety of lentic habitats, such as the margins of shallow ponds, swamps, temporary puddles in woodland and brackish water in the burrows of land crabs. The Japanese Phreatodytes relictus Ueno, once placed in the separate family Phreatodytidae, is a troglobiont of deep wells (Ueno 1957). Adults and larvae are commonly found among the roots of floating or emergent aquatic plants. Little is known of their food habits, but they are generally thought to feed on detritus. Adults have weakly-developed swimming legs and larvae usually feed on the bottom. Larvae of the European Noterus clavicornis (Degeer) are able to tap air from aquatic plants by means of an acute, spiracle-bearing siphon at the abdominal apex. This same species pupates beneath the surface in an air-filled cocoon. (Balfour-Browne & Balfour-Browne 1940; Leech & Chandler 1956; Spangler 1991).

Larval descriptions and illustrations of noterids may be found in Bertrand (1972), Böving & Craighead (1931) and Spangler (1991). The last world catalogue of the family was that of Zimmermann (1920). A key to the genera and species occurring in Australia is given by Watts (2001). The Australian representatives of the Noteridae belong to the subfamilies Notomicrinae (Notomicrus and Neohydrocoptus) and Hydrocanthinae (Canthydrus and Hydrocanthus).

General References

Arnoldi, L.V., Zherikhin, V.V., Nikritkin, L.M. & Ponomarenko, A.G. 1977. Mesozoic beetles. Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta. Akademiya Nauk SSSR 161: 1-204

Balfour-Browne, F. & Balfour-Browne, J. 1940. An outline of the habits of the water-beetle Noterus capricornis Herbst (Coleopt.). Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London A 15: 105-112

Bertrand, H. 1972. Larves et Nymphes des Coléoptères Aquatiques du Globe. Paris : Paillart 804 pp. [Date published 12/31/1972]

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. 1981. The Biology of the Coleoptera. London : Academic Press xii 802 pp.

Leech, H.B. & Chandler, H.P. 1956. Chapter 13. Aquatic Coleoptera.pp. 293–371 in Usinger, R.L. (ed.) Aquatic Insects of California with Keys to North American Genera and California Species.Berkeley : Univ. California Press ix 508 pp.

Spangler, P.J. 1991. Noteridae (Adephaga). pp. 314-315 in Stehr, F.W. (ed.). Immature Insects. Coleoptera and Diptera. Dubuque, Iowa : Kendall-Hunt Vol. 2 xvi 975 pp.

Ueno, S.-I. 1957. Blind aquatic beetles of Japan, with some accounts of the fauna of Japanese subterranean waters. Archiv für Hydrobiologie 53(2): 250-296

Watts, C.H.S. 2001. A new species of Australian Canthydrus Sharp with a key to the Australian species of Noteridae (Coleoptera). Records of the South Australian Museum (Adelaide) 34(2): 61-64

Zimmerman, A. 1920. Dytiscidae, Haliplidae, Hygrobiidae, Amphizoidae. pp. 1-326 in Schenkling, S. (ed.). Coleopterorum Catalogus auspiciis et auxilio W. Junk. Berlin : W. Junk Vol. 4 Pars 71. [Date published 15/Dec/1920]

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