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Family PTILIIDAE Motschulsky / Erichson, 1845


Compiler and date details

23 May 2002 - Andrew A. Calder, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Introduction

The Ptiliidae, or feather-wing beetles, are amongst the smallest of all Coleoptera. The family was previously known as Trichopterygidae, which is based on a preoccupied generic name Trichopteryx Kirby now known as Acrotrichis Motschulsky. Worldwide, over 70 genera and more than 550 species have been described (Hall 1999), with the Australian fauna consisting of 18 genera and some 55 described species. Lea (1907) described the first Australian species of this family in a newly erected genus Rodwayia. During the early 1930's Deane (1930, 1931, 1932, 1934) who described 43 new species reviewed the Australian fauna but provided no key to species. These papers form the primary source of information for the Australian fauna. A key to the genera from Australia and adjacent islands has been provided by Deane (1932). Hall (1999) who gives a key to the genera of Nanosellinae worldwide and provided a phylogeny of the tribe, provides the most recent contribution to the Australian fauna. The ptiliid web page can be found at the Tree of Life web site accessed at:
http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html.

Lawrence & Newton (1995) considered the Ptiliidae to consist of four subfamilies: Ptiliinae, Nanosellinae, Cephaloplectinae and Acrotrichinae. However, Hall (1999) and Sörensson (1997) have provided convincing evidence indicating that the nanosellines should be regarded as a tribe of Ptiliinae. Hall (1999) surmises that a thorough phylogenetic analysis of all genera within Ptiliidae is needed before any definitive classification can be arrived at. Seevers & Dybas (1943) treated the genus Rodwayia as belonging to a separate family Limulodidae that is here considered to belong to the ptiliid subfamily Cephaloplectinae (which has priority over Limulodinae) following (Lawrence & Newton 1995). Rodwayia is apparently restricted to Australia. The Nanosellini has been recorded from Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Africa, India, northern Europe and the New World (Sörensson 1997).

Ptiliidae are found in leaf litter, moss, grass tussocks, riverine sand bars along the edges of water courses, bogs, decaying logs, compost heaps, tree holes, fresh and decaying fungi, animal dung, under the bark of dead trees, decaying seaweed, and most decaying organic matter of high humidity capable of hosting moulds and other fungi (Johnson 1985). Ptiliids are microphagous feeding mainly on spores and hyphae of fungi (Hall 1999). The species of Rodwayia are myrmecophiles living in ants' nests found especially under stones (Lea 1907; Seevers & Dybas 1943) and appear to feed on larval exudations of the host ants (Lawrence & Britton 1994). Species of nanosellines inhabit the narrow ventral tubes of fruiting bodies of bracket fungi growing in forests (Sörensson 1997).

 

Diagnosis References

Sörensson, M. & Delgado, J.A. 2019. Unveiling the smallest – systematics, classification and a new subfamily of featherwing beetles based on larval morphology (Coleoptera : Ptiliidae). Invertebrate Systematics 33: 757-806 [787-791, 794-795] (diagnoses and description of adult and larvae. Key to subfamilies and tribes of late-instar larvae)

 

General References

Deane, C. 1930. Trichopterygidae of Australia and Tasmania. Desriptions of six new genera and eleven new species. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 55(4): 477-487

Deane, C. 1931. Trichopterygidae of Australia and adjacent islands. Descriptions of five new genera and twenty new species. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 56(3): 227-242

Deane, C. 1932. Trichopterygidae of Australia and adjacent islands. Descriptions of two new genera and eighteen new species. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 57(3-4): 181-196

Deane, C. 1934. Small beetles. Victorian Naturalist 50(10): 242-244

Hall, W.G. 1999. Generic revision of the tribe Nanosellini (Coleoptera: Ptiliidae: Ptiliinae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 125(1-2): 39-126

Johnson, C. 1985. Revision of Ptiliidae (Coleoptera) occurring in the Mascarenes, Seychelles and neighbouring islands. Entomologica Basiliensia 10: 159-237

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.

Lea, A.M. 1907. On a new and remarkable genus of blind beetle from Australia and Tasmania of the family Trichopterygidae. Tasmanian Naturalist 1(3): 14–16 [Dec. 1907]

Seevers, C.H. & Dybas, H.S. 1943. A synopsis of the Limulodidae (Coleoptera): A new family proposed for myrmecophiles of the subfamilies Limulodinae (Ptiliidae) and Cephaloplectinae (Staphylinidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 36: 546-586

Sörensson, M. 1997. Morphological and taxonomical novelties in the world's smallest beetles, and the first Old World record of Nanosellini (Coleoptera: Ptiliidae). Systematic Entomology 22: 257-283

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
01-Jul-2020 POLYPHAGA 16-Apr-2020 MODIFIED Max Beatson
01-Jul-2020 21-Dec-2011 MODIFIED
12-Feb-2010 (import)