Family SPONGIPHORIDAE
Compiler and date details
Gerasimos Cassis, Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Introduction
The Spongiphoridae are a cosmopolitan family comprising 13 subfamilies, 33 genera and 512 species (Steinmann 1990). The family is very diverse and the taxonomy is complex and somewhat unresolved. Their biology is very poorly known; most species are probably omnivorous.
In Australia, the family is represented by four subfamilies: the Labiinae, Nesogastrinae, Sparattinae and Spongiphorinae. The Labiinae are represented by four genera: Labia Leach and Spirolabia Steinmann, each represented by one tramp species, both with cosmopolitan distributions; Paralabella Steinmann is known from the tramp species P. curvicauda (Motschulsky) and P. murrayi Kirby, putatively endemic to Christmas Island; and Paraspania Steinmann represented by five species, mostly endemic.
Among the other subfamilies in Australia, four species are known in the Nesogastrinae genus, Nesogaster Verhoeff; Sparattinae are represented by Auchenomus Karsch (1 species) and Chaetospania Karsch (2 species); and four genera are recorded in the Spongiphorinae—Irdex Burr (2 species), Marava Burr (3 species) and Spongiphora Audinet-Serville (5 species). Steinmann (1989, 1990) catalogued and described the Australian species in his world catalogue and monograph.
Spongiphorids are small to medium-sized, commonly with the body depressed. They are possibly the most highly derived of all earwig families. Unlike other forficuloids, they lack a ventral projection of the second tarsal segment. Most species are alate, although wing polymorphism does occur. The neck is of the forficuloid type. The forceps are mostly symmetrical, the inner margins of each cercus often with large teeth. The pygidium is frequently diagnostic at the species level. The male genitalia are characterised by one genital lobe, and the virga lacks a basal vesicle (Steinmann 1990).
General References
Steinmann, H. 1989. World Catalogue of Dermaptera. Dordrecht : Kluwer Academic Publishers 934 pp.
Steinmann, H. 1990. Dermaptera. Eudermaptera I. Das Tierreich 106: xviii 1-558
History of changes
| Published | As part of group | Action Date | Action Type | Compiler(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12-Feb-2010 | (import) |