Family PYTHIDAE Solier, 1834

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• Pythites Solier, 1834.

  Type genus:

   Pytho Latreille, 1797.

Introduction

The family Pythidae is small, with only 24 described species in 7 genera worldwide (Pollock & Lawrence 1995). 5 genera are found in the Holarctic, one is neotropical and the seventh is Australian. Pythid larvae are found in rotting wood or rotting epiphytes (Lawrence & Slipinski 2013).

The two Australian species are placed in Anaplopus Blackburn, 1890, and confined to rainforests on the east coast of Australia (Pollock & Lawrence 1995). The larvae are subcortical. The two species are dramatically different from each other in surface sculpture (Pollock & Lawrence 1995).

General References

Lawrence, J.F. & Ślipiński, A. 2013. Australian Beetles. Volume 1 : morphology, classification and key. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing 561 pp.

Pollock, D. & Lawrence, J. 1995. Review of Anaplopus Blackburn (Coleoptera: Pythidae), with comments on constituents and systematics of Pythidae. pp. 449-472 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 Vol. 1 xii + 558 pp.

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