Family PTILIIDAE Motschulsky / Erichson, 1845

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Family PTILIIDAE Motschulsky / Erichson, 1845

Compiler and date details

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

Ptiliidae Erichson, W.F. 1845. Naturgeschichte der Insecten Deutschlands. Coleoptera. Berlin : Nicholaische Buchhandlung Vol. 3 vii + [2] + 968 pp., 1 pl: 320 pp. in 1845; 321-480 in 1846; 801-968 in 1848. [Date published 1845-1848].

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).