Family SALPINGIDAE Leach, 1815

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• Salpingides Leach, 1815.

  Type genus:

   Salpingus Illiger, 1802.

Introduction

The Salpingidae, some of which are called waisted bark beetles, are a small family of beetles found almost worldwide, with greatest diversity in temperate forests. The composition and systematic position of the family has been fluid untill relatively recently, but it is now placed within a group of 5 tenebrionoid families (Hu, Pollock & Telnov 2020). There are 31 described species in Australia and estimated to be 50, compared with about 300 species worldwide (Lawrence & Slipinski 2013). The family is well-represented in amber (Alekseev 2017). Salpingids are small slow-moving beetles, mostly subcortical or associated with woody detritus. Some species are fire-adapted in European conifer forests (Suda et al 2009). The Australian genus Tretothorax is a myrmecophile (Lea 1910). Inopeplines are significantly flattened and brachelytrous, resembling staphylinds. There is a significant group of littoral species on Pacific coasts, living in rock crevices, but this subfamily, Aegialitinae, is yet to be found in Australia (Zerche 2004).

The Australian fauna is poorly described. Six subfamilies are found, with one species in each of Agleninae, Dacoderinae (Aalbu et al 2005) and Othniinae, three species in Inopeplinae, four species in Prostominiinae but only two described (Tomaszewska & Slipinski 2008; Lawrence & Slipinski 2013) and 18 species in Salpinginae. The Australian fauna is predominantly southern and eastern and several species occur on offshore islands (Lea 1917). Aglenus brunneus (Gyllenhal) is an exotic species, originally from Europe, which is synanthropic, associated with mouldy stored products but also leaf litter and grass cuttings (Buckland et al. 2009).

General References

Aalbu, R., Andrews, F. & Pollock, D. 2005. Revision of Western Hemisphere Dacoderinae with a phylogenetic analysis of world taxa Coleoptera: Salpingidae. Coleopterists Society Monograph 4: 1-40

Alekseev, V. 2017. Third species of Salpinginae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea: Salpinginae) from Baltic amber. Paleodiversity 10(1): 117-121

Buckland, P., Panagiotakopulu, E. & Sveinbjarnardottir, G 2009. A failed invader in the North Atlantic, the case of Aglenus brunneus Gyl. (Col., Colydiidae), a blind flightless beetle from Iceland. Biological Invasions 11(6): 1239-1245

Hu, F.-S., Pollock, D. & Telnov, D. 2020. Comparative morphology of immature Trictenotoma formosana Kreische, 1919 and systematic position of the Trictenotomidae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea). European Journal of Taxonomy 640(1-22)

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

Lea, A.M. 1910. Australian and Tasmanian Coleoptera inhabiting or resorting to the nests of ants, bees, and termites. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria n.s. 23(1): 116-230 pls XXV-XXVII [Date published Aug. 1910]

Lea, A.M. 1917. Notes on some miscellaneous Coleoptera, with descriptions of new species. Part III. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 41: 121-322 pls XII-XV

Suda, I., Voolma, K. & Ounap, H. 2009. Short-term monitoring of fire-adapted Coleoptera in burnt pine forest of northern Estonia. Acta Biologica Universitatis Daugavpiliensis 9(1): 43-48

Tomaszewska, K.W. & Ślipiński, S.A. 2008. Review of the genus Myrabolia Reitter (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea: Myraboliidae). Australian Journal of Entomology 47(1): 32-50 [Date published 14 January 2008]

Zerche, L. 2004. Revision der Gattung Aegialites Mannerheim (Coleoptera: Salpingidae: Aegialitinae). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie A (Biologie) 666: 1-116

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